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of the globe. Such formations are, on the other hand, 

 utterly irreconcileable with the Wernerian theoiy. The 

 retreat of the universal water must have taken place simul- 

 taneously over the whole surface of the earth. No one 

 portion of land can therefore be accounted more ancient 

 or more recent than another ; except in so far as the tops 

 of the mountains, being the first left dry, may lay claim to 

 a priority of existence. 



" The Isle of France is surrounded almost throughout 

 with a coral reef, the continuity of which is nowhere broken 

 but at the harbours and the mouths of the rivers. This reef 

 varies greatly in diameter, forming in some parts merely a nar- 

 row border, while in others it expands to the breadth of a mile 

 and upwards. Its surface is in general quite level, but here 

 and there intersected by narrow channels, wherein an infinite 

 variety of small fish, the tenants of the reef, take refuge 

 during the reflux of the tide. The extreme edge is invariably 

 the shallowest part, and seems as if designedly raised as a 

 bulwark against the encroachment of the sea, which breaks 

 over it with a prodigious roll. Beyond this barrier, the 

 bottom slopes like a glacis, and soon sinks out of view. 

 Looking over the reef from an elevated station, we can trace 

 the windings of the channels that traverse it by the varying 

 colour of the water. In the deepest parts it is of a bluish 

 tint; in two or^ three fathoms this colour passes to green, 

 which becomes paler in proportion as the depth diminishes. 

 From the top of the Pouce Mountain we have a bird's-eye 

 view of almost the whole island, with its pale-green border, 

 veined with blue, and fringed with the foam of the everlasting 

 surge. Beyond this bright zone, the indigo colour of the 

 ocean deepens on the view until lost in the aerial tints of the 

 horizon. 



" I have already hinted my suspicion that the strong fabrics 

 known by the name of Coral-reefs, are not reared up from 

 the depths of the ocean, as is generally believed ; but that they 

 are little more than mere incrustations growing on a base of 

 solid rock, at the depth of a few fathoms beneath the surface. 

 But as this is a point that lies beyond the reach of actual 



