THE COMPLETED ATOLL. 233 



island cemetery, where each atoll marks the site of a buried 

 island. The whole Pacific is scattered over with these simple 

 memorials, and they are the brightest spots in that desert of 

 waters. 



V. THE COMPLETED ATOLL. 



The atoll, a quiet scene of grove and lake, is admirably 

 set off by the contrasting ocean. Its placid beauty rises to 

 grandeur when the storm rages, and the waves foam and roar 

 about the outer reefs ; for the child of the sea still rests 

 quietly, in unheeding and dreamy content. This coral-made 

 land is firm, because, as has been already explained, it is 

 literally sea-born, it having been built out of sea-products by 

 the aid of the working ocean. And so with the groves : they 

 were planted by the waves ; and hence the species are those 

 that can defy the encroaching waters, and meet the various 

 conditions in which they are placed. The plants therefore 

 take firm hold of the soil, and grow in all their natural strength 

 and beauty. 



Only an occasional coral island has a completely encircling 

 grove, and is hence a model atoll. But the many in which a 

 series of green islets surround the lagoon are often but Httle 

 less attractive, especially when the several islets present varied 

 groupings of palms and other foliage. To give perfection to 

 the coral-island landscape there ought to be, here and there, 

 beneath the trees, a pretty cottage or villa, and other marks 

 of taste and intelligence; and now and then a barge should be 

 seen gliding over the waters. As it is, the inhabitants are 

 swarthy and nearly naked savages, having little about them 

 that is pleasant to contemplate; and their canoes, with a 

 clumsy outrigger to keep them right-side up, as well as their 

 thatched huts, are as little in harmony as themselves with 

 nature's grace and loveliness. 



Where the islets of a coral reef are heaped up blocks of 

 coral rock, blackened with lichens, and covered with barely 

 enough of trailing plants and shrubs to make the surface green 



