8 FLORIDA REEFS. 



ble depth, and forming isolated, disconnected patches, the first rudiments, as 

 it were, of an extensive new reef There we have a continuous rang-e of 

 similar corals in unbroken continuity for miles, or even hundreds of miles, 

 rising at unequal heights nearly to the surface. 



Here and there a few heads or large patches, or even extensive flats of 

 corals, reach the level of low-water mark, and may occasionally be seen 

 above the surflice of the waters, when the sea is more agitated than by the 

 snnple action of the tides. In other places coral sands or loose fragments 

 of corals, larger or smaller boulders, detached from lower parts of the living 

 reef, are thrown upon its dying summits, and thus form the first accumula- 

 tion of solid materials, rising permanently above low-water mark; collected 

 sometimes in such quantities and at such heights as to remain dry, stretch- 

 ing their naked heads above high water. 



In other places these accumulations of loose, dead materials have entirely 

 covered the once living corals, as fiir as the eye can reach into the depth 

 of the ocean : no sign of life is left, except perhaps here and there an 

 isolated bunch of some of those species of corals which naturally grow 

 scattered, or of those other organisms which congregate around or upon 

 coral reefs ; but the increase of the reef by the natural growth of the 

 reef-building corals is at an end. Again, in other places, by the further 

 accumulation of such loose materials, and the peculiar mode of aggregation 

 which results from the action of the sea upon them, and which will be 

 more fully explained hereafter, extensive islands are formed, ranging 

 in the direction of the main-land, which support them. Elsewhere we 

 may find the whole extent of the reef thus covered, which, after a still 

 more protracted accumulation, perhaps becomes united with some conti- 

 nental shore. 



Now it must be obvious, that from a comparison of so many separate 

 stages of the growth of a coral reef, a correct insight may be obtained into 

 the process of its formation ; and, indeed, in thus alluding to the different 

 localities which came under our own observation, we have already given 

 a general history of its progress, which we now proceed to illustrate more 

 in detail. 



We would, however, first remark, that the extraordinary varieties which 

 exist in the natural condition of different parts of the same reef, or of 

 different reefs, when compared w^th each other, fully explain the discrepan- 

 cies between the reports which have been obtained, respecting the reefs of 

 Florida, prior to our investigations. 



