REVIEW 



OF THE 



THEORY OF CORALFORMATIONS, 



SET EOEÏII BY CII. DAEWIN IN HIS BOOK EN- 



TITLED: IIESEARCHES IN GEOLOGY AND 



NATUEAL HISTOEY. 



jr. c R o §ï s (1). 



I. (2) »I will now give a sketch of the general results , at whichThaVe 

 »arrived, respecting the origia of the various classes of reefs which occur , 

 3»scaltered over such large spaces of the intertropical seas." 



»The first coosiiieralion to attend to is, that every observalion Iea<ls to tlic 

 »concIusion, that these lamelliform corals , which are the elficient agciils 

 »in forminga reef, cannot live at any considerable depth. As far as I have per- 

 » sonally seen, I jiidge of this, from carefully examining the impressions on the 

 wsoundiog lead , taken bij captain FiTZROT at Keeling Island (the Cocos) close 

 »outside the breakers , and from some olhers, vrhich I obtained at the Mau- 

 »iitius, at a depth under ten fathonis. Ihe arining came up as clean , as if it 

 »had been dropped on a carpet of thick turf, but , as the depth increased , 

 » the parlicles of sand brouglit up became more and more nuincrous, uniil 

 » al last it was evident , the bollom consisled of a smooth iayer of calca- 



(1) A resident for many years on the Cocos-island. (Red.). 



(2) The sinall characters indicale the extracts from Mr. Daiiwih'ü woik , 

 tiie large ones the rcfulntious by Mr. Ross. (Red.). 



VUL 1 



