t6 



CORAL REEFS. 



as islands are often known to do in the Pacific Ocean : the 

 Corals continue to grow upward as the island continues 

 to sink, and by the time the Corals reach the level of 

 the sea, the island is out of sight, nothing being visible 

 but the ring of coral bank, with water in the middle.* 



I have told you that not only are islands built up by 

 Corals, but parts of continents also ; and I will show 

 you how the whole peninsula of Florida has been 

 patiently added to the continent of North America on 

 which you live, by these busy little reef-builders, during 



.No. 2J. 



,0 many thousand years that you would find it difficult 

 to count the centuries. 



Do you remember how Florida is shaped and situ- 

 ated, - - like a long tongue of land running out into the 

 Gulf of Mexico ? On the next page is a picture of it 

 (No. 21). Outside, at a little distance, you see, there 

 are a number of small islands called Keys, lying in a 

 curved line around it; and about five miles beyond 

 these islands, if you could look below the water, you 

 would see a crescent-shaped wall growing up from the 

 sea-bottom. But as yet it rises to the surface of the watei 



* No 20. Also lowest figure in Nc 22. 



