FEJEE ISLAND REEFS DESCRIBED.

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tion of the conclusive and comprehensive logic of Modern Science. His view of the formation and growth both of reefs and corals agrees substantially with that presented above, and derived from our observations around the Island of Molokai.

His description of the inner reefs in the Fejees might answer almost equally well for this island. Examples are common there where, as in the account I have given of our ten miles sail upon the Molokai reef, a remote barrier incloses as pure a sea as the ocean beyond, and the greatest agitation is only such as the wind may excite on a narrow lake or channel. Over the surface there are many portions still under water at the lowest tides; and fine fishing sport is af forded on them to the natives, who wade out at the ebb-tide with spears, pronged sticks, and nets, to supply themselves with food

"The lover of the marvellous may find abundant gratification by joining in such a ramble. Among coral plants and flowers, with fishes of fantastic colors -star-fish, echini, and myriads of other beings, which science alone has named, fit inhabitants of a coral world-there is on every side occasion for surprise and admiration. Generally, the rock of these inner reefs is composed of coral, which stands as it grew, less fragmentary than the outer, but united by a solid cement. Upon its surface the limits of the constituent masses may be often distinctly traced. The corals grow underneath the surface in solid hemispheres; but when the surface is reached

the top dies, and enlargement only goes on at the sides.

"Some individual specimens of Porites, in the rock of the inner reef of Tongatabu, were twenty-five feet in diameter; and Astreas and Meandrinas, both there and in the Fejees, measured twelve to fifteen feet. The platform resembles a Cyclopean pavement, except that the cementing material between the huge masses is more solid than any work of art could be.

"Sometimes the barrier reef recedes from the shore, and forms wide channels or inland seas, where ships find ample room and depth of water, exposed, however, to the danger of hidden reefs. The reef on the northeast coast of New Holland and New Caledonia extends four hundred miles, at a distance varying from thirty to sixty miles from shore, and having as many fathoms of depth in the channel. West of the large Fejee Islands the channel is in some parts twenty-five miles wide, and twelve to forty fathoms in depth. The sloop of war Peacock sailed along the west coast of both Viti Lebu and Vanua Lebu, within the inner reefs, a distance exceeding two hundred miles.

"A barrier reef, inclosing a lagoon, is the general formation of the coral islands, though there are some of small size in which the lagoon is wanting. These are found in all stages of development: in some the reef is narrow and broken, forming a succession of narrow islets with openings into the lagoon; in others there only remains a depression of surface in the centre to indicate where the lagoon originally was. The

NOTICES OF THE KINGSMILL GROUP.

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most beautiful are those where the lagoon is completely inclosed, and rests within a quiet lake. Maraki, one of the Kingsmill group, is one of the prettiest coral islands of the Pacific. The line of vegetation is unbroken, and seen from the mast-head it lies like a garland thrown upon the waters.

"When first seen from the deck of a vessel, only a series of dark points is descried, just above the hori zon. Shortly after the points enlarge into the plumed tops of cocoanut-trees, and a line of green, interrupted at intervals, is traced along the water's surface. Approaching still nearer, the lake and its belt of verdure are spread out before the eye, and a scene of more interest can scarcely be imagined. The surf, beating loud and heavy along the margin of the reef, presents a strange contrast to the prospect beyond-the white coral beach, the massy foliage of the grove, and the embosomed lake, with its tiny islets. The color of the lagoon water is often as blue as the ocean, although but fifteen or twenty fathoms deep; yet shades of green and yellow are intermingled, where patches of sand or coral knolls are near the surface; and the green is a delicate apple shade, quite unlike the usual muddy tint of shallow waters.

"These garlands of verdure seem to stand on the brims of cups, whose bases rest in unfathomable depths. Seven miles east of Clermont Tonnere, the lead ran out to eleven hundred and forty-five fathoms (six thousand eight hundred and seventy feet) without reaching botWithin three-quarters of a mile of the southern

point of this island, the lead at another throw, after running out for a while, brought up in an instant at three hundred and fifty fathoms, and then dropped off again and descended to six hundred fathoms without reaching bottom. The lagoons are generally shallow, though in the larger islands soundings gave twenty to thirty-five, and even fifty and sixty fathoms."

In observing these vast walls of coral masonry, and in studying the diversities of coral upon them, and the curiously modified forms of beauty they assume, it is natural to ask, What ends do they serve? and what is all this outlay of beauty for? It were a good answer to say, in the words of the Psalmist, when he was attempting to uncover and describe some of the curious processes of Nature:-O Lord, how manifold are thy

works! in wisdom hast thou made them all.

*

Aside from the manifest utilitarian ends they serve in building up beautiful oases from the bed of ocean, as places of habitation for man and beast, and then affording the material in such exhaustless affluence out of which art may construct temples for God's worship and palaces for man's abode, we say of them, as we can of all things in God's Universe, what one of the most eminent American authors has written in the Poem entitled "Factitious Life:"

THESE are Earth's uses:-God has framed the whole,

Not mainly for the body, but the soul,

That it might dawn on beauty, and might grow

Noble in thought, from Nature's noble show;

* See Note B.

NATURAL AND ÆSTHETIC USES OF CORAL.

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Might gather from the flowers an humble mind,
And on Earth's ever-varying surface find
Something to win to kind and fresh'ning change,
And give the powers a wide and healthful range;
To furnish man sweet company where'er

He travels on—a something to call dear,
And more his own, because it makes a part
With that fair world that dwells within the heart.
Earth yields to healthful labor meat and drink,
That man may live-for what? To feel and think;
And not to eat and drink, and like the beast,
Sleep, and then wake and get him to his feast.
Over these grosser uses Nature throws
Beauties so delicate, the man foregoes

A while his low intents, to soft delights

Yields up himself; and, lost in sounds and sights,
Forgets that Earth was made for aught beside
His doting; and he woos it as his bride!

ROBERTS

Circular Coral Reef and Lagoon.