LECTURE ON CORAL ISLANDS 



pebbles and sand are thrown upon the reef by the same 

 action ; at times, immense blocks, a thousand cubic feet 

 in size, also share this fate. Thus accumulations of frag- 

 ments, coarse and fine, are constantly going on, just as 

 in one of our forests decaying leaves and stems and 

 animal remains add yearly to the soil; and by this 

 means the island begins to appear above the water. As 

 soon as the sea has raised the land beyond the encroach- 

 ing tides many small plants and shrubs take immediate 

 root ; and these are followed by others, until the grove 

 finally establishes itself over the new-made soil. 



" Thus, it is not a process of polyp labor; it is not 

 living growth alone, but growth connected with the wear 

 and tear of the waves ; growth affording the material the 

 waves acting as the nimble yet powerful architects, grind- 

 ing up the material and distributing it through all the 

 crevices, wherever the structure needs strength, and over 

 the level top of the reef where it may earliest recover a 

 spot for the green plants and flowers. Thus made amid 

 the waves, the coral island has the form best fitted to 

 withstand the rude assaults of the sea. There are areas 

 where the clustered corals grow bodily to the surface, 

 and the waves only fill the spaces among the plants or 

 their branches. But these are within the quiet lagoons, 

 or where the plantation is sheltered from the force of the 

 ocean. 



" Such is the appointment of the Divine architect. 

 Read Montgomery, and you will find ' capillary swarms 

 of reptiles, horrent as Medusa' s snakes, ' substituted for 

 flower-animals, and these ' capillary swarms of reptiles ' 

 are made the toiling though unconscious workers in the 

 growing structure. How much more poetical, more 

 glorious, the truth, that the islands grow like flowers to 

 the surface, instead of being the result of toil in laboring 

 millions! It is now an established fact that the coral 

 zoophytes which form the body of reefs do not grow at 

 greater depths than 100 or 120 feet. And yet we find 

 coral islands standing in unfathomed seas. How is this 

 mystery to be explained ? In some soundings taken a 

 short distance from a coral island, the reef rock has been 

 struck by the lead at a depth of 1000 to 2000 feet, and 

 fragments brought up and examined. How can reefs 

 2000 feet deep be made from corals which cannot grow 



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