198 



WHAT MR. DARWIN SAW. 



INDIAN OCEAN. 



KEELING ATOLL 



about six hundred miles distant from the coast of Sumatra. 



This is one of the lagoon 

 islands (or atolls) of cor- 

 al formation. Its rincr- 



o 



formed reef is surmount- 

 ed in the greater part 

 of its length by narrow 

 islets. On the north- 

 ern or leeward side there 

 is an opening through 

 which vessels can pass 

 to the anchorage within 

 the shallow, clear, and 

 still water of the lagoon, 

 which, resting in its great- 

 er part on white sand, is, when illumined by a vertical sun, 

 of the most vivid green. 



On the 6th I accompanied Captain Fitz Koy to an island 

 at the head of the lagoon. The channel was exceedingly in- 

 tricate, winding through fields of delicately branched corals. 

 When we arrived at the head, we crossed a narrow islet, 

 and found a great surf breaking on the windward coast. I 

 can hardly explain the reason, but there is to my mind much 

 grandeur in the view of the outer shores of these lagoon 

 islands. There is a simplicity in the barrier-like beach, the 

 margin of green bushes and tall cocoa-nuts, the solid flat of 

 dead coral-rock, strewed here and there with great loose frag- 

 ments, and the line of furious breakers, all rounding away 

 toward either hand. The ocean, throwing its waters over 



