158 Couthouy on Coral Formations 



the above. Had he lacked opportunity during his stay at 

 Honolulu of observing for himself, there were certainly for- 

 eign residents enough there, missionaries and others, who 

 could have furnished him with more correct information on 

 this subject, had he sought to obtain it. The truth is, that 

 unless retarded or accelerated by occasional storms, the flood 

 and ebb at these islands, from one year's end to another, sum- 

 mer and winter, in breeze and calm, follow the course of the 

 moon as regularly as do the tides in Boston Harbor. The rise 

 and fall of the tide, varies in different harbors, from four to 

 five and a half feet. Having resided for six months in the 

 Hawaiian Group, traversed the four principal islands in vari- 

 ous directions, and beside making careful inquiry of the resi- 

 dents, examined no less than twelve harbors, including nearly 

 all of any consequence, some of them open roadsteads, others 

 formed by small bays, and a large proportion by coral reefs ; I 

 can speak with some confidence on this point. 



All my visits to islands in coral archipelagos having been 

 very brief, I am unable to state what is the course of the tides 

 among them, but incline to believe that at the detached Pau- 

 motus, they obey the usual laws. On landing a second time 

 at Bellinghausen's Island, which is about two hundred and 

 seventy miles west of Tahiti, I found the reef quite bare, at 

 the same hour that it was overflowed on my first visit, some 

 months previous. At the full and change of the moon, the 

 rise at Ocean Island is about twentytwo inches, while at 

 Christmas Island it is five feet, but the tides on both are nor- 

 mal, by the accounts of those who have been wrecked and 

 resided on them for several months. 



I hasten to terminate these discursive remarks, (already ex- 

 tended far beyond what was contemplated at the commence- 

 ment,) by oflering a few suggestions relative to a subject 

 which it appears to me has by no means received, hitherto, 

 an attention commensurate with its importance. I allude to 

 the temperature of the ocean, in its influence upon the growth 

 and geographical distribution of corals. 



It is a remarkable fact, and one for which I am not aware 

 that any explanation has been ofi'ered, that while in the Paci- 



