130 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
either of the glutinous remains within, or of some property in salt water; and the 
interstices being gradually filled up with sand and broken pieces of coral washed 
by the sea, which also adhere, a mass of rock is at length formed. Future races 
of these animalcules erect their habitation upon the rising bank, and die in their 
turn, to increase, but principally to elevate, this monument of their wonderful 
labor. The care taken to work perpendicularly in the early stages would mark 
a surprising instinct in these diminutive creatures. Their wall of coral, for the 
most part in situations where the winds are constant, being arrived at the sur- 
face, affords a shelter to leeward of which their infant colonies may be safely 
sent forth: and to this their instinctive foresight it seems to be owing that the 
windward side of a reef, exposed to the open sea, is generally, if not always, 
the highest part, and rises perpendicular, sometimes from the depth of 200, and 
perhaps many more fathoms.” 
The description which Flinders gives of the appearance of a living 
coral reef! is remarkably graphic and accurate, but he did not, like 
Chamisso, attempt to formulate a theory of the formation of coral reefs. 
He was greatly impressed with the beauty and brilliancy of coloring of 
the corals, and the great variety of their forms. He gives an excellent 
description of the coral flats covered with dead corals, and of the deep 
water lanes separating the reef patches. Flinders had also formed an 
excellent idea of the role played by the accumulation of coral débris 
derived from the outer edge of reef patches in the formation of coral 
sand islands to the leeward, and their final change from a coral sand- 
bank to an island covered with vegetation. He was also the first to 
notice the so called negro heads,” 
It is not until the voyage of the “Fly,” from 1842 to 1846, that 
we have the admirable account of Jukes on the Geology of Queens- 
land and of the adjacent islands, together with a remarkably accurate 
description of parts of the Great Barrier Reef. The chapter which he 
devotes to the description of the Great Barrier Reef? is by far the best 
account we have of the Queensland coral reefs. 
A number of short notices on the Great Barrier Reef are referred to in 
Jack and Etheridge’s “ Geology and Paleontology of Queensland.” We 
have also a few notes on Raine Islet and the vicinity of Cape York in the 
Narrative of the “Challenger” ;4 next, the magnificent volume on the 
1 Terra Australis, Vol. II. p. 87. 
2 Ibid., p. 82: “Тһе reefs (close to the Percy Islands) were not dry in any 
part, with the exception of some small black lumps, which at a distance resembled 
the round heads of Negroes.” 
3 « Narrative of the Surveying Voyage of Н. M. 8.“ Fly," Vol. L p. 811. 
London, 1847. 
4 Narrative, Vol. 1. p. 528, sheet 27. 
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