THE CORAL ISLANDS. S33 



been long since completed, man also api)ears, 

 builds his hut on the fruitful soil formed by the 

 corruption of the leaves of the trees, and calls 

 himself lord and proprietor of this new creation. 



II. FARTHER FORMATION AND PECULIARITIES 

 OF THE CORAL ISLANDS. 



In the preceding account we have seen how the 

 exterior edge of a sub-marine coral edifice first 

 approaches the surface of the water, and how this 

 reef gradually assumes the properties of land ; the 

 island, therefore, necessarily has a circular form, 

 and, in the middle of it, an enclosed lake. This 

 lake, is, however, not entirely enclosed; (and it 

 could not be, for, without supply from the sea, 

 it would soon be dried up by the rays of the sun,) 

 but the exterior wall consists of a great number 

 of smaller islands, which are separated from each 

 other by sometimes larger, sometimes smaller 

 spaces. The number of these islets amounts in 

 the larger coral islands to sixty, and between them 

 it is not so deep, but that it becomes dry at the 

 time of ebb. The interior sea has, in the middle, 

 generally a depth of from thirty to five and thirty 

 fathoms ; but on all sides, towards the land, the 

 depth gradually decreases. In those seas, where 

 the constant monsoons prevail, where, consequently 

 the waves beat only on one side of the reef or 



