20 MR GOODCHILD ON 
situated, as was supposed, in an area of subsidence, but, on 
the contrary, they are in an area of elevation, so that the 
theory of Darwin and of Dana is not applicable to the 
islands and atolls of the Fiji group.’” 
It may be mentioned here that Murray’s views were most 
admirably presented by Sir Archibald Geikie in his Presi- 
dential Address to the Royal Physical Society on Nov. 21st, 
1883. (Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc., vol. viii. p. 1.) 
It will be evident from the foregoing statements that it 
is an essential feature of Murray’s theory that any submarine 
ridge whose summit lies above the zone where calcareous 
matter is dissolved may, in course of time, receive a 
sufficiently-thick deposit of organic carbonate of lime to 
build the sea bottom at that point up to the level where 
reef-building corals can commence their work. Beyond that 
stage all the facts are easily enough accounted for. Some 
few of these submarine eminences may represent the summits 
of volcanoes. In this case it is as well to note that the very 
existence of a volcano implies that the area where it occurs 
is situated either on a zone of upheaval, or else on the 
margin of an area of subsidence. 
Perhaps it may not be out of place to remark again here 
that the rate of growth of the submarine calcareous deposits 
is almost certainly very slow. Various estimates give that 
rate at from one foot in 10,000 to one foot in 50,000 years. 
Many persons who have treated of the subject of the 
origin of coral reefs seem to have purposely left out of sight 
another possible explanation which would enable us to adopt 
Murray’s view without having to invoke so long a time for 
the elevation of the submarine ridges by organic agency. 
There is a curious reluctance to admit that terrestrial move- 
ments play any important part in the shaping of the earth’s 
surface features either below the sea or on the land. Perhaps 
this reluctance is the logical outcome of the desire to main- 
tain a belief in the permanence of the continental areas and 
oceanic basins. In its day, this reaction against the older 
view that rapid interchanges of ocean and continent have 
repeatedly taken place, has done much good service, if only 
by compelling geologists to look better to their facts before 
speaking too rashly about such matters. But with the 
