34 SUBMARINE LIFE NEAR CORAL REEFS. 



fathoms though sometimes much more) in whose 

 pellucid waters shoals of brilliantly coloured fish may 

 be seen 



" swimming about far beneath, as if in some great aquarium 

 of unrivalled beauty, literally filled with myriads of the most 

 varied and wonderful forms of submarine life." Also these 

 still lagoon channels, as Mr. Darwin reminds us, "generally 

 bathe a fringe of alluvial soil, loaded with the most beautiful 

 productions of the tropics." * 



Here the cocoa-nut tree, that queen of palms, with 

 its roots bathed by the clear and briny waters, is 

 usually found flourishing in all its regal glory. 



While to seaward, upon the outward margin of these 

 great reefs, the blue rollers of the mighty ocean 

 in measured cadence, are ceaselessly beating with 

 tremendous violence; and yet it is precisely here, in 

 the midst of this terrific surf, where " the coral-polypes 

 find their most congenial home." f 



There are few more lovely and impressive scenes 

 than may daily be witnessed off the coasts of these 

 coral-girt islands, lying far out in the expanse of the 

 boundless ocean. The salt, health-giving ocean breezes, 

 continually wafted from seaward, at points exposed to 

 the influence of the cooling trade winds, usually prevent 

 the heat from proving oppressive; and here, beneath 

 a sky unflecked by a single cloud, and often amid 

 scenes of surpassing loveliness, the traveller may recline 

 in the delicious balmy atmosphere and brilliant sunshine 

 peculiar to these favoured regions, and watch these 

 gigantic rollers, which even in the finest weather may 

 constantly be seen sweeping forward in majestic 



* A Naturalist's Voyage, etc., by Charles Darwin, p. 469. 

 f EncycL Brit., Qth'edit., Vol. vi., p. 278. 



