in the Pacijic, c^c. 69 



a thousand miles, is named ; but in no one of them is there 

 any mention of, or reference to, a newly formed island. I 

 am familiar with one tradition in which there is a genealogi- 

 cal account of the reigning family for thirty generations, 

 which is equally silent ujxju the subject of new formations." 



In conversation with Mr W. at Upoln, one of the Samoan 

 or Navigator Group, but a few days prior to his death, he 

 stated that on the reef bordering that island, there were par- 

 ticular clumps of coral, known to the fishermen by names de- 

 rived from either some particular configuration, or tradition 

 attached to them, and handed down from generation to gene- 

 ration from time immemorial. By careful inquiry among the 

 natives, he had satisfied himself that these had undergone no 

 perceptible alteration since the earliest mention of them. The 

 testimony of the missionaries, and other foreigners, at the 

 Tahitian and Hawaiian Islands, some of whom had resided 

 during nearly forty years within sight of the reefs, confirmed, 

 as far as it went, the remarks of Mr Williams. Did the limits 

 of this communication permit, many other facts might be 

 adduced, corroborative of the evidence given by these persons 

 of the extremely slow increase of the living corals ; but the 

 point is perhaps now too generally conceded, to render farther 

 details necessary in an article like the present. In connection 

 with this subject of growth, a few remarks, however, upon 

 some of the theories respecting recent coral formations, which 

 have found supporters among men of science, may not be 

 misplaced. 



It was at one time a very generally received opinion, founded 

 chiefly upon the circumstance that a fathomless ocean laved 

 the very margin of the reefs ; that the coral animals com- 

 menced their labors at an illimitable depth, and, governed by 

 a certain instinct or impulse, toiled upward to the light, giving 

 to their sub-marine structures the peculiar form they exhibit, 

 through the same instinct teaching them that it was the best 

 adapled to afford shelter from the violence of wave and tem- 

 pest. 



Thus, the windward portion of the reef was supposed to be 

 that first elevated, presenting a perpendicular face to the 



