310 CORALS AND CORAL ISLANDS. 
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 cor- 
al rock, blackened with lichens, and covered with barely 
enough of trailing plants and shrubs to make the surface green 
in the distant view, the traveller, on landing, would be greatly 
disappointed. But still there is enough that is strange and 
beautiful, both in the life of the land and sea, and in the his- 
tory and features of the island, to give enjoyment for many a 
day. 
The great obstacle to communication with a majority of 
atolls, especially the smaller, is the absence of an entrance to 
the lagoon, and hence of a good landing-place. In that case 
landing can be effected only on the leeward side, and in good 
weather; and best, when the tide is low. ven then, the sea 
often rolls in, so heavily, over the jagged margin of the reef, that 
it is necessary for the boat to take a chance to mount an in-go- 
ing wave and ride upon it over the line of breakers, to a stop- 
ping-place somewhere on the reef’ or shore-platform. 
Less easy is the return through the breakers, especially if 
the sea has risen during the ramble ashore. The boat, in or- 
der to get off again, would naturally take one of the narrow 
channels or inlets indenting the margin of the reef. But, 
with the waves tumbling in one after another, roughly lifting 
and dropping it, as they pass, and with barely room between 
the rocks for the oars to be used, there is a fair chance of its be- 
ing dashed against the reefs to its destruction, or thrown 
broadside to the sea and swamped under a cataract of waters. 
