94^ MULTUM E PARVO. 



be imac^ined. The surf, beating loud and heavy along the 

 margin of the reef, presents a strange contrast to the 

 prospect beyond — tlie white coral beach, the massy foliage 

 of the grove, and the embosomed lake, with its tiny islets. 

 The colour of the lao;oon water is often as blue as the 

 ocean, although but fifteen or twenty fathoms deejD ; 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, wdiose bases root in unfathomable depth. Seven 

 miles east of Clermont Tonnere, the lead ran out to eleven 

 hundred and forty -five fathoms, (six thousand eight 

 hundred and seventy feet) w^ithout reaching bottom. 

 Within three-quarters of a mile of the southern point of 

 this island, the lead had another throw, and, after running 

 out for a while, brought up for an instant at three hundred 

 and fifty fathoms, and then dropped off again and descended 

 to six hundred fathoms without reachino- bottom. The 

 lagoons are generally shallow, though in the larger islands 

 soundings gave twenty to thirty-five, and even fifty and 

 sixty fathoms." * 



The rate at which coral structures are formed is an 

 interesting subject of inquiry, and various opinions have 

 been formed on the point, some affirming that no j^ercep- 

 tible increase takes place in several years, others that tlie 

 process is so rapid, that the Pacific is fast filling up. 

 Darwin's theory of subsidence negatives this conclusion, 



* Cheever's Sanclxoich Islands, p. 152. 



