70 Couthouy on Coral Formations 



breakers, and shelving away on the opposite side. Protected 

 by this wall, it was thought the polypes next constructed their 

 edifices at some distance to leeward, which at first rose in a 

 series of detached masses arranged in a somewhat circular form. 

 But gradually the intermediate spaces were filled up and a con- 

 tinuous chain was thus formed, enclosing a deep, bowl-shaped 

 lagoon, which, in process of time was also filled up by the 

 stony dwellings of the polypes. 



Fragments of coral, heaped up by wind and sea, and cement- 

 ed together, formed a ridge of two or three feet elevation 

 above the level of the surrounding ocean. Multitudes of 

 marine birds frequenting the rock to deposit their eggs — the 

 exuvia of crabs and shell-fish on which they fed, the sedi- 

 ments left in hollows by the heavy and frequent rains ; grad- 

 ually prepared a light soil for the reception of the iev^ seeds 

 wafted thither by favoring currents, or brought by stray land 

 birds — these sprang up, and by their subsequent decay added 

 continually to the depth of soil, — a single cocoa-nut perhaps, 

 cast upon the beach, germinated, and arriving at maturity, its 

 seeds in a few years were scattered over the island, which 

 was then fitted for the abode of man. 



That this is the manner in which the once sterile and 

 weather-beaten ledge of rocks has been here gradually cover- 

 ed with the most luxuriant vegetation, there can be no ques- 

 tion.* Perhaps no more striking proof of it can be adduced, 



* An instance of the rapidity with which even the largest plants multiply 

 and spread themselves over the soil in these regions, is afforded in Christmas 

 Island, an extensive lagoon island, situated between about 1° 40' and 2° 10' 

 North lat. and 157° 10' and 157° uO' West long. By the statement of Capt. 

 Cook, who discovered it in 1777, ''on the cocoa-nut trees upon the island, (the 

 number of which did not exceed thirty,) very little fruit was found ; and in 

 general, what was found was either not fully grown, or had the juice salt or 

 brackish ; so that a ship touching there must expect nothing but birds, fish and 

 turtle, and of these an abundant supply may be depended upon." 



In 1837, the English whale ship Baton was wrecked on this reef, and her 

 Captain, George Benson, with his crew of twentythree persons, remained up- 

 wards of seven months on the island, from which they were finally taken by 

 an American whaler. According to Capt. Benson, there were several large 

 groves of cocoa-nut trees, one of them containing between six and seven hun- 

 dred, and the whole number exceeded two thousand, bearing excellent fruit, 

 although many trees had been cut down by the whalers occasionally touching 



