INSIDE AN ATOLL, KEELING ISLAND. 



CHAPTER XX 



KEELING ISLAND : CORAL FORMATIONS 



Keeling Island — Singular appearance — Scanty Flora — Transport of seeds — Birds and 

 insects — Ebbing and flowing springs — Fields of dead coral — Stones transported 

 in the roots of trees — Great crab — Stinging corals — Coral-eating fish — Coral 

 formations — Lagoon islands or atolls — Depth at which reef-building corals can 

 live — Vast areas interspersed with low coral islands — Subsidence of their founda- 

 tions — Barrier reefs — Fringing reefs — Conversion of fringing reefs into barrier 

 reefs, and into atolls — Evidence of changes in level — Breaches in barrier reefs — 

 Maldiva atolls; their peculiar structure — Dead and submerged reefs — Areas 

 of subsidence and elevation — Distribution of volcanoes — Subsidence slow and 

 vast in amount. 



April 1st. — We arrived in view of the Keeling or Cocos Islands, 

 situated in the Indian Ocean, and about six hundred miles 

 distant from the coast of Sumatra. This is one of the lagoon 

 islands (or atolls) of coral formation, similar to those in the 

 Low Archipelago which we passed near. When the ship was 

 in the channel at the entrance, Mr. Liesk, an English resident, 

 came off in his boat. The history of the inhabitants of this 

 place, in as few words as possible, is as follows. About nine 



2 I 



