362 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE CHAP, 
The lagoon islands have received much 
attention ; which “ is not surprising, for every 
one must be struck with astonishment, when 
he first beholds one of these vast rings of 
coral-rock, often many leagues in diameter, 
here and there surmounted by a low verdant 
island with dazzling white shores, bathed on 
the outside by the foaming breakers of the 
ocean, and on the inside surrounding a calm 
expanse of water, which, from reflection is 
generally of a bright but pale green colour. 
The naturalist will feel this astonishment more 
deeply after having examined the soft and 
almost gelatinous bodies of these apparently 
insignificant coral-polypifers, and when he 
knows that the solid reef increases only on the 
outer edge, which day and night is lashed by 
the breakers of an ocean never at rest. Well 
did Francois Pyrard de Laval, in the year 
1605 exclaim, ‘C’est une merveille de voir 
chacun de ces atollons, environné d’un grand 
bane de pierre tout autour, n’y ayant point 
d’artifice humain.’”’? | | 
Of the enchanting beauty of the coral beds 
1Darwin, Coral Reefs. 
