278 BULLETIN : MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



the existence of an atoll in the present position of the Bermudas is not 

 demonstrable, and that the lagoons and sounds were formed, as Rioe 

 first showed, during a period of subsidence. i But granting all this, 

 what is the connection of an island group which according to him has no 

 relation to the ring of an atoll, of an island for which the existence of an 

 atoll cannot be demonstrated, with the Darwinian theory of the forma- 

 tion of coral reefs 1 How can the conclusions an-ived at by Heilpriu be 

 reconciled with the following statements made by him : — 



" It will be seen tliat these results, so far as they go, are in absolute 

 harmony with the views which Mr. Darwin entertained regarding the 

 structure of these islands. They do not prove the correctness of the 

 Darwinian hypothesis of the formation of coral islands, but they measur- 

 ably sustain it ; on the contrary, they are largely opposed to the require- 

 ments of the substitute theory which has been recently proposed. Ele- 

 vation and subsidence are both shown to have marked the region in its 

 development, and these conditions are more in consonance with the 

 Darwinian hypothesis than with any other." ^ 



Investigators have been carried away by the simplicity of the theory 

 of subsidence propounded by Darwin, and it is only of late years since a 

 mass of observations have been made which could not be explained by 

 the prevailing theory that we have at last realized how complicated the 

 problem is. Heilprin, as well as others before him, has truly said, "We 

 may not yet have fathomed the true method of the formation of coral 

 islands." But I must differ from him in tofo when he says, " but such 

 evidence as I was able to obtain at the Bermudas failed to convince me 

 of the erroneousness of the time-honored theory of subsidence." * 



The exploration of the Bahamas and of the Bermudas has brought 

 into prominence a condition of things relating to the formation of coral 

 reefs, the bearing of which had not been realized before. It is perhaps 

 one of the most significant examples of how little we as yet know of the 

 history of the formation of the coral reefs. 



Professor Rice, who seems to have been amply satisfied with the subsidence 

 theory." — Bermudas, p. 75. 



1 Heilprin has well stated the conditions of the disintegration of tiie land when he 

 says : " The difficulty in the problem entirely disappears if we admit subsidence, and, 

 as has already been seen, tiie positive evidences of subsidence arc ample. On no 

 other theory, it appears to me, can tlie waste of the cliffs on the south shore be 

 explained. The direct evidences of subsidence, moreover, do not come from a 

 single point in the archipelago ; they are found from Ireland Island and Hamilton 

 Sound, through tlie main island, to St. George." 

 • 2 Bermudas, p. 46. ^ Bermudas, p. 21. 



