— 36 — 



their shores fringing reefs and these in soine places projecting 



considcrably far out, have none of them // widely encircling reefs" 



of coral, 01' any other formation, consequently, do not, like 



the proper encircled islands, afibrd secure and convenient 

 anchorages. 



XXIV. » When we consider ihe nbseuce of widely encircling reefs and 

 slagoon islauds in the several archipelagoes and wide areas, where there 

 5>are proofs of elevalions , and on the other hand, the conyerse case of 

 » the absence of such proof, where reefs of these classes do occur togelher 

 5>wilh the juxlaposition of the different kinds produced by movements cff 

 »the snme order, and the syninietry of the whole , I think it will be diffi- 

 »cult (even independently of tlie explanalion it oITers , of the peculiar 

 » configuration of each class , to deny a great degree of probability lo this 

 »theory. lts importance , if true , is evident, because we get at one glance, 

 » an insight into the systera by which the surface of the land has been 

 »broken up , in a manner somewhat sirailar , hut certainly far less perfect, 

 » to what a geologist would have done , who had lived liis ten thoiisand 

 »years, and kept a record of the passing changes. We see the law almost 

 »established , that linear areas of great extent, undergo movements of an 

 »astonishing unifortnily and , that the bands of elevalion and subsidence 

 »alteruate. Such phenomena, at once irapress the mind with the idea of 

 »a fluid gradually propelled onwards, from beneath one part of the solid 

 » crust to anolher." 



We have shown that lagoon isles and reefs are present 

 in situations, where Mr. Dakwin affirms that they are absent, 

 and we know so much of some of those areas, to which 

 he refers, as to induce the expectation, that if all were com- 

 pletely explored (which most of them have not yet been) , islands 

 widely encircled by coral reefs, would be met with, but, their 

 absence furnishes no proof that this theory of his concoction 

 is foundcd on truth, whilst it is fatally deficiënt , in not accoun- 

 ting for the construction of any of the lagoon islands, such 

 as the Cocos for instance, which he insist upon maldng a key- 

 stone to his theory , an // index" kc. 



Wc therefore are, perforce of reasou, compelled to deny, 

 that it affords any recognizablc consonance to truth, and we 

 iarther opine, that, the laws of which he speaks, as having 

 almost establishcd, ncver v/ill bc so, whilst the life of the 



