116 



THE OPAL SEA 



A pproach 

 to lagoon 

 islands. 



but it is some time before it takes definite body 

 and becomes substantial shore. 



Still different is the approach to what mari- 

 ners call the " low " islands or " lagoon " 

 islands — the coral formations of the tropic 

 seas. Again, the last thing to look for is an 

 island. The cocoanut palms, mangroves, and 

 other large-leaved trees that usually grow upon 

 these atolls, make up, at a distance, a band of 

 olive-green that cuts in between the gray-blue 

 of the sky and the deeper blue of the sea. It 

 rests between the sea and sky for a long time 

 as a mere puzzling coloration. As we come 

 nearer, however, another band of cream color 

 forms under the green and becomes recogniza- 

 ble as a beach ; while still below the cream color 

 is a line of shining white, indicating perhaps 

 where breakers are dashing over coral reefs. 



The rounded island of the Pacific, lying 

 like an emerald set in a sapphire sea, how 

 beautiful it seems to wanderers of the watery 

 waste! Low down it rests upon the great 

 bosom — an oasis in the desert, an island of 

 palms in the wilderness, a haven of rest with- 

 out tumult save of the surf, without sound save 

 of the surge, without time save of the tide. 

 Born in no convulsive throe of nature but 

 builded skyward through many a year by the 



Islands of 

 the Pacific. 



