MURRAY: ALEXANDER AGASSIZ. 



153 



discussion. This was hotly resented by Huxley and others, while 

 some naturalists seem to have believed they were called upcn to 

 defend Darwin's coral-reef theory although they had never seen or 

 examined a coral-reef. Agassiz kept severely aloof from all these con- 

 troversies, although he writes that he was much amused by the style 

 of various articles and controversies. In one letter to me (March, 

 1888) he writes: — "I am glad to see by last "Nature" that you are 

 taking a hand in the coral discussion now that it has reached hard 

 bottom and no longer deals with imaginary quantities, impossible alge- 

 bra and metaphysical squibs." 



All scientific men must regret that Agassiz was not spared to publish 

 the long-expected summary of his coral-reef work, and to learn that 

 he has not left behind any manuscript suitable for publication giving 

 a connected statement of his views. Such a work from his pen would 

 doubtless have been a splendid edifice erected on the magnificent 

 foundation of observation laid with so much expense, trouble, and 

 care in the elaborate memoirs on the coral-reef regions he had visited 

 in all parts of the world. 



Throughout all these coral-reef investigations I have been in sub- 

 stantial agreement with Agassiz's views. In these circumstances I 

 need make no apology for giving a short statement of the conclusions 

 at which, I think, Agassiz had arrived as a result of his coral-reef 

 investigations. 



Agassiz claimed, I believe, to have shown that existing atolls and 

 barrier reefs in no way indicate, even approximately, the former 

 position of the shore lines around islands or along coasts now deeply 

 submerged beneath the ocean. 



The submerged banks from which atolls and barrier reefs now arise 

 have been formed — that is, they have been built up or levelled down 



— in a great variety of ways, and at very different times. Each 

 coral-reef region must in this regard be studied by itself, account 

 being taken of the surrounding physical and geological conditions. 



The reefs themselves have been very largely — in some instances, 

 predominantly — made up of lime-secreting organisms other than the 

 so-called reef-building corals, such as calcareous Algae, Foraminifera, 

 and corals other than true reef builders, many of which have a wide 

 depth range. 



The characteristic features of coral-reefs — the central shallow 

 lagoon and the surrounding rim of living coral with deep water outside 



— are mainly to be explained by biological, chemical, and mechanical 

 activities continuously in operation at the present time, there being 



