874 



THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 



Tahiti, so justly named "the queen of islands." But the 

 encircling reefs are often at a much greater distance from the 

 shore. Thus in New Caledonia they extend no less than 140 

 miles beyond the island. 



As an example of barrier-reefs, I shall cite that which fronts 

 the north-east coast of Australia. It is described by Flinders as 

 having a length of nearly a thousand miles, and as running 

 parallel to the shore at a distance of between twenty and thirty 

 miles from it, and in some parts even of fifty and seventy. The 

 great arm of the sea thus inclosed, has a usual depth of between 

 ten and twenty fathoms. This probably is both the grandest 

 and most extraordinary reef now existing in any part of the 

 world. 



Stone Corals. 



The atolls, or lagoon-islands, are numerously scattered over 

 the face of the tropical ocean. The Marshall and Caroline 

 islands, the Paumotic group, the Maldives and Lacadives, and 

 many other groups or solitary islets of the Pacific or Indian 

 Ocean, are entirely built up of coral ; every single atom, from 

 the smallest particle to large fragments of rock, bearing the 

 stamp of having been subjected to thejpower of organic ar- 

 rangement A narrow rim of coral-reef, generally but a few 

 hundred yards wide, stretches around the enclosed waters. 

 When a lagoon-island is first seen from the deck of a vessel, only 

 a series of dark points is descried just above the horizon. Shortly 

 after, the points enlarge into the plumed tops of cocoa-nut trees, 



