LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



looking toward me, and I see him yet as on that day. I 

 take it the bird recovered, as I did not encounter the fate 

 of the ' Ancient Mariner/ 



" Only in the most finished state, and in islands of 

 comparatively small size, is the belt of verdure around 

 the lagoon unbroken. Generally, it is rather a string of 

 green patches upon the reef, with bare intervals of coral 

 reef rock between, over many of which intervals the 

 waves at high tide roll into the lagoon; and there are 

 frequently one or more openings where ships may enter 

 for safe anchorage within. The atoll is never circular in 

 shape, and may be of any form, like other islands. The 

 lagoon varies in depth from a few feet to three hundred, 

 and often tiny islets are seen over its surface. 



' The larger islands are forty or fifty miles in length, 

 and the lagoon then looks like a fragment of the ocean, 

 which, in fact, it is. 



" Were the ocean away, the atoll would appear some- 

 what like a broad shallow urn ; having for its basin what 

 is now the lagoon, and the dry land as its rim or border. 

 The urn would show within a bottom of white coral sand, 

 with here and there an islet of growing corals; upon its 

 rim, the vocal groves already described; and around its 

 body above, a belt of coral plantations. 



' Jumping into a boat on a serene day when the waves 

 are still, and pulling over the shallow waters, as the 

 ripple of the oar dies away, you see the various corals 

 deep in the clear liquid element, as diversified in appear- 

 ance as the vegetation of the land, and singularly like 

 plants in their forms and the blossoms that cover them. 

 Or you may defy the tides and traverse the half-exposed 

 reef, and find in many a crystal pool a perfect garden of 

 zoophytes. Even in the very breakers you would en- 

 counter scenes over which you would exult, and all the 

 more for the waves that come dashing around you. 

 There are small, leafless trees of many kinds ; clumps of 

 dense shrubbery and colored twigs; mossy tufts; imita- 

 tions of the cactus, lichen, or fungus ; pendant alcyonia of 

 orange, scarlet, and crimson hues waving in the coral caves 

 with the motion of the waters; there are broad spreading 

 leaves, single or elegantly grouped, the whole surface set 

 over with flowers; and, as decorations of the groves, there 

 are large coral vases of perfect model, made of a network 



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