HOUTMAN'S ABROLHOS. 



147 



in most instances the initial growths of the handsome violet-tinted species growing on 

 the adjacent reefs, which has been referred to as attaining to such a luxuriant 

 growth in the Pelsart Island Lagoon. 



At some future date, when the Colony of Western Australia shall have passed 

 its present lusty adolescence, and arrived at that maturer age when it shall possess its 

 own University and Chairs of Natural History, it may be safely prophesied that these 

 Abrolhos reefs, within a twenty-four hours' journey from the metropolis of Perth, .or 

 but three or four hours' sail from Geraldton, will constitute one of the happiest and 

 most productive hunting grounds and fields for biological investigation to the associated 

 students of and graduates in Natural Science. In addition to the unprecedented 

 facilities here offered for the most exhaustive study of living Stony Corals or 

 Madreporaria, either individually or in the bulk, abundant material is also to hand 

 for the observation and record of the numerous phenomena of wider scope relating to 

 the formation and growth of the reefs, to their environments and food supply, and also 

 to the complex questions of their rise or subsidence. 



As a characteristic illustration of the earliest recognisable phase of a coral 

 island, attention may here be directed to the photograph reproduced in this page 

 taken by the writer in close vicinity to Gun Island, in the Pelsart group. It 



W. SaMle-Kent, Photo. 

 " THE BIRTH OF A CORAL ISLAND," ABROLHOS ARCHIl'ELAGO, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 



represents the first accumulation of loose coral fragments raised above high water 

 mark, which, by continued accretion and solidification, becomes fashioned into 

 a typical coral island upon which herbage and terrestrial organisms may eventually 

 become established. This photograph, which has been suggestively designated " The 

 Birth of a Coral Island," was taken, as will be recognised, at low water, the weather- 

 bleached central accumulation of coral fragments alone showing above the surface 



