408 Notices of Memoirs — Professor Alexander Agassiz — 



speaks well for the careful and thoughtful observations on which 

 it was based, and, like all the work of this illustrious naturalist, it 

 commended itself to everyone by its clearness and simplicity. 



Before proceeding to give an account of his expedition to Fiji 

 Alexander Agassiz devotes a few pages to an examination of some 

 of the literature of coral reefs. 



The Literature of Coral Keefs, 



" In many quarters " (writes Agassiz) " it has become a question of 

 creed to uphold the Darwinian theory of subsidence as essential to 

 the formation of atolls and of barrier reefs. Facts and arguments 

 supporting other explanations are ignored or explained away in the 

 most extraordinary manner. Regions which are cited by Darwin 

 and Dana as typical become exceptions when shown to be no longer 

 characteristic regions of subsidence. Typical barrier reefs become 

 patch reefs, atolls are dubbed pseudo atolls ; so that the regions 

 where true barrier reefs or typical atolls, which owe their origin to 

 subsidence, can be examined, are little by little becoming very 

 restricted. In fact, if we are to judge of the regions not yet 

 examined, and which have not been examined by Darwin and 

 Dana, there remain as extensive regions of possible subsidence 

 only such islands as the Marshall and Carolines, some of 

 the atolls of the Gilbert and Ellice groups, and of the Paumotus. 

 Yet, judging by analogy, of the adjoining districts of Fiji and 

 Tonga, and of the descriptions given by Dana of the Paumotus, 

 and by what we may gather from the charts in the light of our 

 own exploration, it would not be launching a very doubtful 

 proposition to assert that even in these island groups we shall 

 find that the explanation we have given of the formation of 

 atolls and of barrier reefs applies equally well to them. This still 

 leaves the field open for observations in some of the coral regions of 

 the Indian Ocean, and of the East Indian Archipelago. But in the 

 districts which have been described as typical by both Darwin and 

 Dana, recent observations have shown that other and more natural 

 explanations than the theory of subsidence are sufficient to account 

 for the formation of atolls and of barrier reefs. 



"As is well known, Darwin's experience among coral reefs was 

 limited to a part of Tahiti, to the west side of Mauritius, and to the 

 Keeling Atoll. Though he passed through the Paumotus without 

 examining any of the islands ; according to the narrative of the 

 'Beagle,' Darwin saw in the distance Honden Island, passed by 

 Taiaro along the shore of Kauehi and sailed between Elizabeth 

 Island and Fakarava (Wittgenstein) to Otaheite. Captain Fitzroy 

 also sailed through the Navigator, Friendly, and Fiji Islands without 

 anchoring anywhere. Dana worked among the reefs at Tahiti, 

 Samoa, and the Feejees, though he did not visit the Eastern 

 Archipelago, limiting his observations to the larger islands, Viti 

 and Vanua Levu and Ovalau. He ' twice visited the Hawaiau 

 Islands, landed and gathered facts from fifteen coral islands, some 

 of them in the Paumotu Archipelago ; one, Tongatabu, in the 



