74 THE BERMUDA ISLANDS. 



oilier deep channels separating the West Indian Islands, was 

 formed through subsidence — the result of localized breakages 

 in the crust. This view has already been expressed by Suess,' 

 who draws a close parallel between the physiographic con- 

 struction of the basin of the Gulf of Mexico and that of the 

 Mediterranean. 



Mr. Agassiz thinks it " somewhat surprising that, in the dis- 

 cussion which has lately been carried on in the English re- 

 views by the Duke of Argyll, Huxley, Judd, and others, 

 regarding the new theory of coral reefs, no one should have 

 dwelt upon the fact, that, with the exception of Dana, Jukes, 

 and others who published their results on coral reefs soon 

 after Darwin's theory took the scientific world by storm, not a 

 single recent original investigator of coral reefs has been able 

 to accept this explanation as applicable to the special district 

 which he himself examined " (p. 133). This condition may be 

 surprising, but it is not less surprising that the different in- 

 vestigators who have rejected the Darwinian hypothesis should 

 have thus far failed to agree among themselves as to their own 

 special theories. Thus, the " solution theory " of the formation 

 of the atoll-lagoon, which has been so much emphasized by 

 Mr. Murray, and the possibilities of which we have already 

 discussed, is practicably rejected by Bourne, Guppy, and 

 Wharton'', and even Agassiz expresses himself not fully satis- 

 fied with its efficiency. And as far as I know no satisfactory 

 explanation of the formation of the deep lagoons has been 

 given by any of these investigators. Captain Warton has re- 

 cently described' a number of submerged reef-structures in 

 the China Sea which have a deep flat centre, surrounded by 

 an elevated growing rim ; it is assumed that were this rim to 

 grow up to the surface we would have the characteristic feat- 

 ures of an atoll, with its deep central lagoon, presented. But 



^Antlilz lier Enle, I. 

 ■^Nature, Feb. 23, 18«8. 

 3/,oc. dl., p. 393. 



