CHAPTER XIV 



1896 



THE GREAT BARRIER REEF 



Agassiz selected the Great Barrier Reef of Australia 

 for the goal of his next expedition, as he wished to deter- 

 mine whether the causes instrumental in creating the 

 coral regions about the Antilles were as local as some of 

 the scientific men of the old school believed. This great 

 reef, stretching for hundreds of miles along the north- 

 eastern shores of the island continent, seemed an excellent 

 place for the purpose. Not only had Darwin especially 

 cited the Great Barrier Reef in support of his theory, 

 but J. B. Jukes, who visited it in the Fly, also concluded 

 that the formation of the reef was due to subsidence. 

 Judging from a magnificently illustrated volume on the 

 Great Barrier Reef which appeared in 1893, W. Saville 

 Kent also seemed to believe that the theory of subsidence 

 must be true, because it had been adopted as an ele- 

 mentary axiom in the "leading Australian handbooks." 



"The Voyage of the Fly," published by Jukes in 

 1847, gives a remarkably accurate description of parts of 

 the reef. In order to explain its formation by Darwin's 

 theory, Jukes makes use of the accompanying imaginary 

 section. 



Since reef-building corals will not grow much below 

 twenty fathoms, the great mass of coral rock F, which 

 the theory demands, could not possibly have been formed 

 by corals growing up from the bottom. The supporters 



