256 TOILERS IN THE SEA. 



" The beach consists of coral pebbles, or sand with 

 some worn shells, and occasionally the exuviae of 

 crabs and bones of fishes. Owing to its whiteness 

 and the contrast it affords to the massy verdure 

 above, it is a remarkable feature in the distant view 

 of these islands, and often seemed like an artificial 

 wall or embankment running parallel with the 

 shores. 



" The emerged land beyond the beach, in its 

 earliest stage, when barely raised above the tides, 

 appears like a vast field of ruins. Angular masses 

 of coral rock, varying in dimensions from one to a 

 hundred cubic feet, lie piled together in the utmost 

 confusion, blackened by exposure or from encrusting 

 lichens. Such regions may be traversed by leaping 

 from block to block, with the risk of falling into the 

 many recesses among the huge masses. 



" In the next stage, coral sand has found lodgment 

 among the blocks, and although so scantily supplied 

 as hardly to be detected without close attention, 

 some seeds have taken root, and vines, purslane, 

 and a few shrubs have begun to grow, relieving the 

 scene, by their green leaves, of much of its desolate 

 aspect. 



" In the last stage, the island stands six or ten 

 feet out of water. The surface consists of coral sand, 

 more or less discoloured by vegetable or animal 

 decomposition. Scattered among the trees stand, 



