CORAL-ISLANDS. 377 



coral, the whole would have passed away without a record; 

 while, from the actual extent of the coral-reefs and islands, we 

 know that the entire amount of the high land lost to the Pacific 

 was at least 50,000 square miles. But as other lands may have 

 subsided too rapidly for the corals to maintain themselves at the 

 surface, it is obvious that the estimate is far below the truth. 



As living coral-reefs do not grow above low-water mark, it 

 may well be asked how habitable islands can form upon their 

 crests. The breakers are here the agents of construction. They 

 rend fragments and blocks from the outer border of the reef 

 and throw them upon the surface. Corals and shells are pulve- 

 rised by their crushing grinding power, and gradually fill up the 

 interstices. In this manner the pile rises higher and higher, till 

 at last even the spring tides can no longer wash over it into the 

 lagoon, on the border of which the fine coral sand accumulates 

 undisturbed. The seeds which the ocean-currents often carry 

 with them from distant continents find here a congenial soil, 

 and begin to deck the white chalk with an emerald carpet. 

 Trees, drifting from the primeval forest, where they have been 

 uprooted by the swelling of the river on whose banks they grew, 

 are also conveyed by the same agency to the new-formed shore, 

 and bring along with them small animals, insects, or lizards, as 

 its first inhabitants. Before the stately palm extends its feathery 

 fronds sea-birds assemble on this new resting-place, and land- 

 birds, driven by storms from their usual haunts, enjoy the shade 

 of the rising shrubbery. At last, after vegetation has com- 

 pleted its work, man appears on the scene, builds his hut on 

 the fruitful soil which falling leaves and decaying herbs have 

 gradually enriched, and calls himself the master of this little 

 world. In this manner all the coral-reefs and islands of the 

 tropical seas have gradually become verdant and habitable; 

 thus has arisen the kingdom of the Maldives, whose sultan, 

 Ibrahim, glories in the title of sultan of the thirteen atolls and 

 twelve thousand isles. May his shadow never be less 1 



