THE AUSTRALIAN GREAT BARRIER REEF. 115 



the case. The flat surface of the reef is a dull affair enough, though many elegant corals may 

 be seen in the detached pools, or in the parts which are permanently covered by water." 



As recorded in Mr. Jukes' diary, and also by Darwin and other naturalists practically 

 acquainted with coral life, the most luxuriant banks of growing coral are found on the least 

 weather-exposed, or lee, sides of the reefs ; and it is from such situations that the photographs 

 reproduced in this volume were mainly obtained. Nevertheless, many of the apparently easily- 

 injured species, such as the delicate vase-like coralla oi Madrepora surcidosa, are found flourishing 

 beside the most robust forms amidst the weather-side breakers at lowest tide-mark. Charac- 

 teristic photographs of such growths were taken by the author on the weather-side of Rocky 

 Island ; but the violence of the gale during the operations caused a vibration of the 

 camera that rendered the negatives useless for the purposes of photo-mechanical illustration. 

 Luxuriant as is the growth of coral in many of the reef-scapes reproduced in this volume, this 

 luxuriance is much exceeded on sheltered portions of the reefs that are permanently submerged. 

 Their sloping edges, down to a depth of three or four fathoms, as seen on a calm day over the 

 boat's side, often reveal terrace upon terrace, or literally hanging gardens, of coral growth of every 

 variety of form and colour. Specifically, these submerged corals do not differ materially from the 

 types accessible on the surface or near the edges of the reefs at extremely low spring-tides, 

 although in these more sheltered and permanently submerged positions they usually exhibit a 

 more exuberant growth. In different localities, or separate portions of the same reefs, the 

 dominating representatives of the more distinct specific types are as prevalent as on the 

 tidally-exposed areas illustrated. Thus, one almost perpendicular bank may be completely 

 covered with the spreading vasiform coralla of Madrepora surcidosa or pcctinata, usually of a pale- 

 lilac or pink-brown hue, with pale-primrose or flesh-pink growing edges. Another submarine 

 reef is as completely clothed with the brilliant rose-pink, minutely divided, clumps of Seriatopora 

 hystrix. A third bank may include robust branching Stags'-horn varieties, resplendent with 

 intermingling tints of electric-blue, grass-green, and violet, and comprising such specific forms as 

 Madrepora grandis, laxa, dccipicns, and arbiiscitla. Over a very large extent of the submerged reefs, 

 the comparatively solid, smooth-surfaced, and more or less hemispherical, coralla of the Astrasaceae 

 and Poritidffi monopolise the growing space, to the exclusion of the branching species ; or, as 

 abundantly illustrated in the photographs of the tidally-exposed reefs, almost every gradation of 

 intermixture may obtain. 



The area of the Great Barrier district now under notice embraces some of the most interesting 



land and coast marks associated with its earliest exploration by Captain Cook. A little below 



Cooktown, 15° 45' S., is situated the Endeavour reef, upon which Cook's vessel of the same name 



stranded, and so narrowly escaped total wreck. The mouth of the Endeavour River, now the 



site of Queensland's most northern mainland town of Cooktown, is the natural harbour mto 



which he managed to navigate his disabled vessel ; the presumptive spot where he careened, 



y 2 



