166 WHIRLPOOL CHANNEL. 



of this archipelago will satisfy the geologist that 

 they belong to the same age of the world. The 

 history of these coral reefs and islands, which have 

 already attained something like a majority, (if I 

 may use the expression) may be read, at least it is 

 apparently clearly written in the rising banks 

 around, which are just struggling with the tide 

 before they lift themselves for ever beyond its 

 reach. As they rise, the mangrove, the pioneer 

 of such fertility as the sea deposits, hastens to 

 maturity, clothing them with its mantle of never- 

 fading green, and thus bestowing on these barren 

 reefs the presence of vegetable life. Our course 

 now lay along the western foot of the curious 

 head -land just described, a rapid tide soon hurried 

 us past its frowning shadows into a very winding- 

 channel scarcely half a mile wide, and more than 

 20 fathoms deep ; in this we experienced violent 

 whirlpools, the first of which, from want of expe- 

 rience, handled us very roughly, suddenly wrench- 

 ing the oars out of the men's hands, and whirling 

 the boat round with alarming rapidity ; after 

 several round turns of this kind we shot out of the 

 channel (which from the above circumstance we 

 called Whirlpool Channel) into a bay about three 

 miles wide, trending east ; at the head of it were 

 some snug coves, the shores of which were clothed 

 with long rich grass and clumps of palm trees, thus 

 realizing the hopes we had entertained of finding 

 a more fertile country on first observing sio^ns of 

 inhabitants. We would fain have occupied one of 



