CORAL SEAS. 509 



small compared with very many other lagoon 

 islands, bears the stamp of having been sub- 

 jected to organic arrangement. We feel sur- 

 prised when travellers tell us of the vast 

 dimensions of the Pyramids and other great 

 ruins ; but how utterly insignificant are the 

 greatest of these, when compared to these 

 mountains of stone accumulated by the agency 

 of various minute and tender animals ! This 

 is a wonder which does not at first strike the 

 eye of the body, but, after reflection, the eye 

 of reason."* 



Upon the outer shores of these lagoon-like 

 islands a great surf continually breaks, strewing 

 the solid flat of dead coral rock with huge 

 detached fragments. Yet the little creatures 

 build on. The long and massive swell of the 

 ocean incessantly dashes with immense force 

 upon the outworks of the fragile coral-builders. 

 "It is impossible to behold these waves without 

 feeling the conviction that an island, though 

 built of the hardest rock, let it be porphyry, 

 granite, or quartz, would ultimately yield and 

 be demolished by such a power. Yet these low 

 and insignificant coral islets stand and are victo- 

 rious; for here another power, as an antagonist, 

 takes part in the contest. The organic forces 

 separate the atoms of carbonate of lime, one by 

 * Journal, p. 465. 



