Feb. 

 1826. 



254 VOYAGE TO THE 



C yjjf* knew of other lands which there was a probabi- 

 lity of their reaching, and which certainly could 

 not be the coast of America, at least 2000 miles 

 against the trade-wind. 



I shall now bring together a few facts connected 

 with the formation of these islands, which it is hoped 

 may be useful to those persons who are interested in 

 the subject, observing, in extenuation of the absence 

 of more detailed information, that our time did not 

 admit of more than was actually essential to the pur- 

 poses of a correct delineation of their outline, and 

 that in general the islands were so surrounded by 

 breakers that it was dangerous to approach the shore, 

 in the ship in particular, which alone was calculated 

 to obtain very deep soundings. To windward this 

 could not be done of course, and to leeward there 

 was not unfrequently a heavier swell setting upon 

 the island than in other parts of it. 



In speaking of the coral islands hereafter, my 

 observations will be confined to the thirty-two islands 

 already stated to have fallen under our examination. 

 The largest of them was thirty miles in diameter, 

 and the smallest less than a mile : they were of 

 various shapes ; were all formed of living coral, 

 except Henderson's Island, which was partly sur- 

 rounded by it ; and they all appeared to be in- 

 creasing their dimensions by the active operations 

 of the lithophytes, which appeared to be gradually 

 extending and bringing the immersed parts of their 

 structure to the surface. 



Twenty-nine of the number had lagoons in their 

 centres, which is a proportion sufficiently large, when 

 coupled with information supplied from other parts 

 of the globe where such formations abound, to ren- 



