258 TOILERS IN THE 



number two trees must be added, one of which 



-was not in flower, and the other I only heard of. 



As the islands consist entirely of coral, and at one 



time must have existed as mere water-washed reefs, 



-all their terrestrial productions must have been 



-.transported here by the waves of the sea." 



" I can hardly explain the reason," he goes on 

 "to say, " 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 fragments, and the line 

 of the furious breakers, all rounding away towards 

 either hand, the ocean throwing its waters over the 

 i>road reef appears an invincible, all-powerful enemy; 

 yet we see it resisted, and even conquered, by means 

 which at first seem most weak and inefficient It 

 is not that the ocean spares the rock of coral ; the 

 great fragments scattered over the reef, and heaped 

 on the beach, whence the tall cocoa-nut springs, 

 plainly bespeak the unrelenting power of the waves. 

 Nor are any periods of repose granted. The long 

 swell caused by the gentle but steady action of the 

 trade wind, always blowing in one direction over 

 .a wide area, causes breakers, almost equalling in 

 force those during a gale of wind in the temperate 

 regions, and which never cease to rage. It is im- 



