LIVING FORCE IRRESISTIBLE. JW3 



2. Life and Inanimate Nature — Coral Insects tlie in the calm of Deep 

 Waters — Explanation of the formation of the De. p llecfs of the 

 Pacitic Oct an — Coast Reefs — IJrokeu lletfs — Bariier Reefs of 

 Anstrulia — How the Coral Reef becomes an Island. 



Darwin observes, in his beautiful work on the 

 formation of Coral Keefs, that when the ocean 

 hurls its waves against the shores of tlie Pacific 

 Islands, they find in it an invincible enemy. Never- 

 theless, its force is sometimes withstood by obstacles 

 apparently very feeble. It never seems to repose. 

 Its mighty billows, raised by the trade-winds, roll in- 

 cessantly against the shores. The turbulence of the 

 water lashed into foaming breakers is much greater on 

 the shores of these islands than in our temperate 

 reirions: and no one could observe them without 

 feeling convinced that rocks even of granite or 

 quartz must eventually yield to forces so consider- 

 able, and be utterly demolished. These little isles 

 of coral, however, so low, so insignificant, resist suc- 

 cessfully the assault made upon them, thanks to the 

 intervention of another force, in some sort opposed 

 to the first, which takes part in the struggle. The 

 organic forces detach, particle by particle, from the 

 foaming breakers the carbonate of lime, which they 

 afterwards reunite in a symmetrical form. IMyriads 

 of architects are employed in this work night and 



