18411881] CORAL REEFS 197 



To E. von Mojsisovics. Letter 534 



Down, Jan. 29th, 1879. 



I thank you cordially for the continuation of your 

 fine work on the Tyrolese Dolomites, 1 with its striking 

 engravings and the maps, which are quite wonderful from 

 the amount of labour which they exhibit, and its extreme 

 difficulty. I well remember more than forty years ago 

 examining a section of Silurian limestone containing many 

 corals, and thinking to myself that it would be for ever 

 impossible to discover whether the ancient corals had formed 

 atolls or barrier reefs ; so you may well believe that your 

 work will interest me greatly as soon as I can find time to 

 read it. I am much obliged for your photograph, and from 

 its appearance rejoice to see that much more good work may 

 be expected from you. 



I enclose my own photograph, in case you should like to 

 possess a copy. 



To A. Agassiz. 2 Letter 535 



Part of this letter is published in Life and Letters, III., pp. 183, 184. 



Down, May 5th, 1881. 



It was very good of you to write to me from Tortugas, as 

 I always feel much interested in hearing what you are about, 

 and in reading your many discoveries. It is a surprising 

 fact that the peninsula of Florida 3 should have remained at 

 the same level for the immense period requisite for the 

 accumulation of so vast a pile of debris. 



You will have seen Mr. Murray's views 4 on the formation 

 of atolls and barrier reefs. Before publishing my book, I 

 thought long over the same view, but only as far as ordinary 

 marine organisms are concerned, for at that time little was 

 known of the multitude of minute oceanic organisms. I 

 rejected this view, as from the few dredgings made in the 



1 Dolomitriffe Siidtirols und Venetiens : Wien, 1878. 



2 See note, p. 147. 



3 Alexander Agassiz published a paper on " The Tortugas and Florida 

 Reefs" in the Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci., XL, p. 107, 1885. See 

 also his Three Cruises of the Blake, Vol. I., 1888. 



4 " On the Structure and Origin of Coral Reefs and Islands," Proc. 

 R. Soc. Edin., Vol. X., p. 505, 1880. Prof. Bonney has given a summary 

 of Sir John Murray's views in Appendix II. of the third edition of Darwin's 

 Coral Reefs, 1889. 



