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 1 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 debris 

 derived from the outer edge of reef patches in the formation of coral 

 sand islands to the leewai'd, 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. 12 



It is not until the voyage of the "Fly," from 1812 to 1816, 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 3 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 Elaine 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. 83 : " The 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 II. M. S. ' Fly,' " Vol. I. p. 311. 

 Lon.lon. 1847. 



4 Narrative, Vol. I. p. 528, sheet 27. 



