~ 27 — 



in tlie submarine vallcy, that runs or lies betwcen tlie coast and 

 the submarine riclge, on vvhich that Barrierreef lias been built 

 up. In trutli the existencc of those isles, in that situation , 

 puts Mr. Daüwim's theory at once liors de combat, as far as 

 New Caledonia is coucerued. 



XX. » The New Hebrides line of islands rnay be observed to bend al'- 

 » ruptly al New Britain , tlience to run nearly east and west, and laslly 

 » lo resumé it's fermer N. W. direclion in Suiuatra und the peninsula of 

 » Malucca. The figure raay be couipared lo the letter S. laid obliquely , 

 » Lul the line is often doublé. We have shewn that the southern part, 

 »as far north as New Ireland, abounds with proofs of elevalion; so is il 

 »wilh the rest. Since the time of Bodgaiktille , every Toyager adduoed 

 »some fresh instance of such changes ihroughout a great part of the East 

 »Indian (Indonesianj Archipelago , I may specify New Guinea , Waigio, 

 vOcrarn, Tinior, Java and Sumatra. Coral reefs are abundant in tlie 

 5)greater part of these seas , bul they inerely skirt the shores. In the saine 

 »manner as we have foliowed the curved line of elevalion , so may we , 

 » thal of subsidence. At Keeliog Island (the Cocos) 1 have already mentio- 

 »ned , that there exist proofs of the laller movement , and il is a very in- 

 «terestiiig circumstance , that during the last earthquake by which tliat 

 «island was elfècted , Sumatra, tho' distant nearly 600 miles, was vioient- 

 » ly shaken. Bearing in mind, that tliere are proofs of recent eievation 

 »ou ihe coast of the iatter , oue is slrongly teiupted lo believe , that as one 

 »end of the lever goes up , the other gocs down and canies willi il iveeliiig 

 » Island (ihe Cocos), which would have been submerged loog ago , in the 

 »deplhs of the ocean , haii il not been tbr the wonderful labours of llie 

 «reef building polypi." 



Mr. Darwix sliould be very careful of the books and 

 charts, on whose authority he sets forth these assertions, for 

 assuredly those documeuts are unique , or at least , have been 

 engraved and printed solely for geologists of his class and ca- 

 libre; therefore, if lost, Avill most likely be lost to the world. 

 Tor our parts we are quite innocent of having ever hitherto 

 received the knowledge of their existence, and even, if they 

 were accessible to us, we should prefer trusting rather to the 

 ones in common use by comraon navigators on this hemisphere. 

 On these, we see, that the New Britains lying east and west, 

 form a convexity to southward, having their eastern part tren- 

 ding northward into parallelisra with New Ireland , and their 



