353 



AUSTRALIA CORAL REEFS.* 



[QUARTERLY EEVIEW, JUNE 1847.] 



THE volumes we have placed at the head of this article 

 narrate, or are connected with, those expeditions of mari- 

 time survey in distant regions of the globe, by which the 

 credit and interests of England, as the great maritime and 

 colonial power of the world, are maintained and enlarged. 

 What we have hitherto accomplished of such research, though 

 perhaps adequate to, does not exceed the demand that may 

 fairly be made from a nation so circumstanced as to territory, 

 commerce, and the arts and improvements of social life. In 

 this matter there is an obligation due to ourselves, to other 

 nations, and to posterity ; and while deprecating, as we do, all 

 narrow and parsimonious views in dealing with an obligation 

 thus incurred, we may add our belief that no public expendi- 

 ture can be more profitably made no public services more 



* 1. Narrative of the Surveying Voyageof H.M.S. ' Fly? commandedby Captain 

 F. P. Blackwood, B.N., in Torres Strait, New Guinea, and other Islands of the 

 Eastern Archipelago, during the Years 1842-1846, together with an Excursion 

 into the Interior of the Eastern part of Java. By J. Beeta Jukes, M.A., F.GKS., 

 Naturalist to the Expedition. 2 yols. 8vo. 1847. 



2. Structure and Distribution of Coral Beefs, being the first part of the 

 Geology of the Voyage of the ' Beagle,' under the command of Captain Fitzroy, 

 during theYears 1832-1836. By Charles Darwin, M.A., F.E.S., F.G.S. London, 

 1842. 



In this article there occurs some commingling of dates, such as I have alluded 

 to in the preface. That part of it which relates more especially to Australia 

 has been added to and corrected, from a later article in the ' Edinburgh Review, 

 upon the Geographical Researches of our own time. 



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