CORAL ISLANDS. 391 



stroyed much sooner, if, from the effect of the tides, these 

 frail animalcules are exposed naked to the action of a 

 burning sun. When there occur small hollows in these 

 heaps of inert spoils, deprived of their inhabitants, which 

 are always covered by the water, several tufts of those 

 lithophytes are still remarked, which, having escaped from 

 the almost general destruction, glow with the most lively 

 colours. Then, the families which are developed anew, 

 not being able to build on the outside of those reefs on 

 which the sea is constantly breaking, draw nearer and 

 nearer the shore, where the waves now deadened have 

 scarcely any more action upon them, as in the Isle of 

 France, at Timor, the Papua, the Marian, and the 

 Sandwich Islands ; provided always the waters had not 

 a great depth, as is the case at Turtle Island, of which 

 Cook speaks, where no bottom is found between the 

 madrepore reefs and the island, notwithstanding the 

 shortness of the space which exists between these two 

 points. 



If we examine these animals in the places best adapted 

 to their growth, we shall see their different species, the 

 forms of which, as varied as they are elegant, become 

 rounded into balls, spread out into fans, or ramify into 

 trees, mingling together, blending with each other, and 

 reflecting the varied hues of red, yellow, blue and violet. 



It is well known that all these alleged walls, exclusive- 

 ly formed of corals, are intersected with openings through 

 which the sea enters and retires with violence ; and every 

 body knows the danger which Captain Cook ran on one 

 occasion, on the coast of New Holland, when he had no 

 other resource, in order to save himself from destruction, 

 than to take the sudden resolution of attempting one of 



