240 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



22 On the 1st January, 1817, a low woody island was discovered 



in latitude 10° 8' north, longitude 189° 4', reckoning- from the 

 meridian ot Greenwich, westerly. The natives came off and hovered 

 round the ship in canoes; tall and well-shaped, with high foreheads and 

 aquiline noses, they seemed to differ somewhat from the generality of 

 the South Sea islanders; tbeir hair, neatly tied up, was adorned with 

 wreaths of liowers and coloured shells; and cyliuders of green leaves or 

 of tortoise-shells, 3 inches in diameter, hung from their ears. Two or 

 three days afterwards they fell in with a chain of islands extending 

 from latitude 6° to latitude 12°, longitude 187° to longitude 193° west, 

 or rather a succession of groups, each consisting of a circular reef of 

 coral rocks, out of which, at irregular distances, rose a number of small 

 flat islands, richly covered with the bread-fruit, the pandanus, and cocoa- 

 nut trees. Captain Krusensteru claims for Lieutenant Kotzebiie the 

 merit of having first discovered these groups; but we can scarcely per- 

 mit ourselves to doubt that they are the same which were seen by Cap- 

 tain Marshall in the "Scarborough" in 1788, and by the "Nautilus" in 

 1799, and named on the charts the Nautilus, the Chatham, and Calvert's 

 Islands. We readily admit, however, that "if Lieutenant Kotzebue be 

 not the first discoverer of these islands, he is, at all events, the first who 

 has made us acquainted with their true position;" and we are disposed 

 to allow him the further merit of having thrown much additional light 

 on the nature and formation of those singular coral groups which rise 

 out of the Pacific in circular chains like Jairy rings in a meadow, 

 almost through its whole extent from east to west, and from the 30tli 

 parallel of northern to the same x)arallel of southern latitude. 



It has long been known that the upper surface of these islands, usually 

 known by the general name of Coral Eocks, is composed of calcareous 

 fragments of a great variety of forms, the production of marine animals, 

 and since the voj^ages of Cook, Flinders, D'Entrecasteaux, and others, 

 it has been as generally supposed that these minute creatures began 

 their wonderful fabrics at the very depth of the ocean, building upwards 

 from the bottom, and that each generation, dying in its cells, was suc- 

 ceeded by others, building upon the labours of their predecessors, and 

 thus rising in succession till they reached the surface. This was sur- 

 mised to be the process from the circumstance of the sea being found 

 so deep close to the external side of the reef as frequently to be unfath- 

 omable. It now api)ears that this is not precisely the case. 



The facility with which the little vessel of Kotzebue entered through 

 the open spaces in the surrounding reef or dam into the included lagoon 

 enabled M. Chamisso to inspect more narrowly the nature of these 

 extraordinary fabrics, and to give a more distinct and intelligible 

 account of their origin and progress. From the circumstance of their 

 being grouped only in certain spots of the Pacific, and always in an 

 united though irregular chain, generally more or less approaching to a 

 circle, he was led to conclude that the coral animals lay the founda- 

 tion of their edifices on shoals in the ocean, or perhaps, more correctly 

 speaking, on the summits of those submarine mountains which advance 

 suthciently near the surface to aflbrd them as much light and heat as 

 may be necessary for their operations. 



The extreme depth at which they can ])erform their functions has not 

 yet been ascertained, but it was found, on the late voyage of discovery, 

 that in P)arfin's Pay marine animals existed at the depth of 1,000 

 fathoms, and in a tcmi)erature beh)w the freezing j^oint. The outer 

 edge of the reef exposed to the surf is the first that shows itself above 

 water, and consists of the largest blocks of coral rock, comjjosed of 



