applicable to the Theory oj the Earth. J 65 



of the highest mountains of Coupang, and they are easily 

 chstinguishcd : in the deepest cavern.s, and the widest fis- 

 sures, they present a tissue, tlie characters of uiiicli cannot 

 escape notice. In the excursion, so painful and so laborious, 

 undertaken bv nie and my friend Lcsueur, to hunt crocodiles 

 at Oliaama, we everv where observed the same composi- 

 tion ; at Oba, Lassiana, Mcniki, Noebaki, Oebello, and 

 Olioama. At the last-mentioned point we found ourselves 

 <^posile to the grand chain of mountains of Aniufoa and 

 'Fatelou, the back of which is uninhabitable on accoinit 

 of tlie ppndigious number of crocodiles which live in the 

 marshes of that part of the coast. This broad plateau, 

 which commands all that portion of Ti-mor, is enlirelv 

 jcomposed of madreporic matters. From Oe«ina to Pacoula 

 the whole country, according to the inhabitant*, i-fcjjime- 

 st(me; and this is unanimously confirmed by the Dutch. 



It is not only in this state of death and iuaclivity that the 

 zoophytes of Timor ought to excite admiration and interest:: 

 they encumber, in the living state, the bottom of the sea.j 

 -every where in the Bay of Babao they raise up reefs and 

 islands. Turtle Island (Rca Poidou), Birds Island [Bouroit 

 Poidoii), and Monkey Island {Code PouIqu), are exclusively 

 their work. Long narrow reefs, which proceed from Point 

 Simao, confine more aud more the entrance of the bay iu 

 that quarter. They render inaccessible the coasts of Fa- 

 toume and Soulama, and promote tlic increase of the 

 land gained from the sea in all these points. On the coast 

 of Osajia one may already, at low water, advance to the di- 

 stance of more than three-fourlhs of a league on the shore 

 abandoned by the waves: it is there that, with a mixture of 

 astonishment and admiration, one may enjoy at ease the 

 wonderful spectacle of thousands of these animals inces- 

 santly employed in the formation of the rocks on which 

 one advances. All the genera are assembled at the same 

 time at the feet of the observer ; they press around him ^ 

 rtheir singular and fantastical forms, the different modifica- 

 tions of their Colours, and those of their organization .md 

 their structure, attract, in turn, his afcteation and medita- 

 tions ; and when, provided with a good magiiifyi no glass, 

 ihe contemplates these beings, so weak he can scarcely con- 

 .ceive how nature, by means fio small in appearance, should 

 be able to raise up from the bottom of the sea those vast 

 ridges of mountains which are continued over the face of 

 the island, and which seem to form almost its whole sub- 

 stance. At Timor it would be easy to make a long series 

 of observations on these interesting animals : the profound 

 L 3 cuUnness 



