30 CORAL REEFS. 



by a large collection of mud, formed by the washing 

 of the sea against the shore and against the coral reef, 

 wearing it into sand and mud, which has been heaped 

 up in the channel between the line of islands and the 

 shore, till it fills it completely. 



I think that, with these facts, we can see how, in the 

 course of many years, the solid land of Florida will 

 extend to where that outer coral wall now runs be- 

 neath the surface of the water. The mud-flats will in- 

 crease by the constant addition of all the mud, sand, 

 broken shells, and materials of all sorts floating about 

 in the channel between the coast and the islands, till 

 they are raised to a level with them, and thus connect 

 them by solid ground. The wall, of which the islands 

 are only those parts that have grown more rapidly here 

 and there, will complete its growth, and rise above the 

 level of the sea for its whole length. The outer reef, 

 now rising only in two or three rocky points above the 

 sea-level, will gradually form islands here and there, as 

 the inner one now does ; and between those islands 

 and the inner rt" af, which will then be the coast of 

 Florida, mud-flat i will collect and fill the space. The 

 outer reef will tl ten gradually complete its growth, no 

 longer remaininj a series of islands, but becoming a 

 long strip of lai id ; the mud-flats will unite it to the 

 inner one, and then there will be solid ground all 

 the way from t 1 ic present coast of Florida to where 

 the outer coral reef now runs beneath the sea. 



This will take place in centuries to come ; but it 

 actually has taken place, to the north of the present 

 reefs, during thousands of years past, and the whole 

 peninsula of Florida has been formed by the same 



