164 J.D. Dana on Changes of Level in the Pacific Ocean. 
on the west cannot be explained without supposing a subsi- 
dence of one or two thousand feet at the least. The distant bar- 
rier of New Holland is proof of as great if not greater subsidence. 
E'ffect of the Subsidence.—The facts surveyed give us a long 
insight into the past, and exhibit to us the Pacific scattered over 
with lofty lands where there are now only humble monumental 
atolls. Had there been no growing coral, the whole would have 
passed without a record. These permanent registers, planted 
es past in various parts of the tropics, exhibit in enduring chat- 
acters the oscillations which the “stable” earth has since undet- 
gone. Thus Divine wisdom creates and makes the creations 1n- 
scribe their own history; and there is a noble pleasure in deci- 
phering even one sentence in this Book of Nature. 
rom the actual extent of the coral reefs and islands, we know 
that the whole amount of high land lost to the Pacific by the 
below the truth. It is apparent that in many cases, islands now 
disjoined, have been once connected, and thus several atolls may, 
have been made about the heights of a single subsiding land of 
large size. Such facts show farther error in the above estimate, 
evincing that the scattered atolls and reefs do not tell half the 
story. Why is it, also, that the Pacific islands are confined t0 
the tropics, if not that beyond thirty degrees the zoophyte could 
not plant its growing registers? 
et we should beware of hastening to the conclusion that a 
continent once occupied the place of the ocean, or a large part - 
it, Which is without proof. ‘I’o establish the former existence 0. 
a Pacific continent is an easy matter for the fancy; but geology 
knows nothing of it, nor even of its probability. : 
The island of Banabe in the Caroline archipelago affords 0 
dence of a subsidence iz progress, as my friend, Mr. Horatio Hale, 
the Philologist of the Expedition, gathered from a foreigner who 
had been for a while a resident on this island. Mr. Hale rematks, 
after explaining the character of certain sacred structures of stone’ 
“It seems evident that the constructions at Ualan and Banabe ate 
of the same kind, and were built for the same purpose. ire 
also clear that when the latter were raised, the islet on which — 
stand was in a different condition from what it now is. For? 
present they are actually in the water; what were once pats: 
now passages for canoes, and as O'Connell [his informant 
‘when the walls are broken down the water enters the inclos* 
