136 BULLETIN: MUSEUM ОҒ COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
viewed from the forecastle of the wreck (about thirty feet above the water) 
that rose even to sublimity. Тһе unbroken roar of the surf, with its regular 
pulsation of thunder, as each succeeding swell first fell on the outer edge of the 
reef, was almost deafening, yet so deep-toned as not to interfere with the slight- 
est nearer and sharper sound, or oblige us to raise our voices in the least. 
Doth the sound and the sight were such as to impress the mind of the spectator 
with the consciousness of standing in the presence of an overwhelming majesty 
and power, while his senses were delighted by the contrast of beautiful colors 
afforded by the deep blue of the ocean, the dazzling white of the surf, and the 
bright green of the shoal water on the reef. 
“The reef, when closely examined, appeared to consist of a sandy floor, on 
which were thickly clustered clumps of coral, scattered closely but irregularly 
about it. The corals appeared principally rounded masses of astræa and maan- 
drina, covered with their green-colored animals in a state of expansion; there 
were, however, many finger-shaped madrepores of beautiful purple colors, and 
leaf-like expansions of explanaria and other branching corals. These were now 
generally covered with from one to four feet of water, but some masses were 
level with its surface. The whole was checkered with spaces of white sand, 
had a bright gr 
ass-green hue when viewed from a distance, and, when looking 
down on it from the poop of the wreck, might have been likened to a great 
submarine cabbage garden,” ! 
Very little can be added to the sketch of the Barrier Reef given by 
Jukes in Chapter XIII. of the Voyage of the “ Fly,” beginning at Sandy 
Cape and extending northward into Torres Strait (pp. 318 to 332), and 
including an account of the detached reefs off the Great Barrier Reef. 
Jukes gives a detailed description of Raine Island, which has been 
reprinted by Kent,? and comes to the conclusion that in Torres Strait 
there is a band of islands to the westward of the coral reef, which, 
with the exception of the narrow fringing reefs round the islands, are 
composed of rocks similar to those of the cast coast of Australia, 
extending across to New Guinea, while these rocks are not found upon 
the islands to the east of the reefs. 
While it is undoubtedly true, as mentioned by Kent, that Jukes consid- 
[11 3 
ered Darwin's hypothesis as € perfectly satisfactory to my [his] mind,” 
yet I cannot help analyzing Jukes’s summary to show how correctly he 
had analyzed the main features of the Great Barrier. Reef, and of its 
relations to the mainland and intervening islands, and was led to what 
seem to me erroneous conclusions, from the inferences he drew from the 
1 Voyage of the “Fly,” Vol. T. p. 121. 
2 Great Barrier Reef, p. 118. 
8 Voyage of the “Vly,” Vol. I. p. 847 
