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IN'SIDE AN ATCLL. VZEELING ISL-i-VE. 



CHAPTER XX 



KEELIXi; I.-LAM'; C'^iRAL FORMATIONS 



Keeling Ulanu — Singular appearance — Scanty Flora — Transpon of seeds — Birds and 

 insects — Ebbing and tlowing springs — Fields *jl' dead coral — Stones IrarLspc-ned 

 in the root5 of trees — Great crab — Stinging corals — Coral-eating dsh — Coral 

 formations — Lag<xtn islands or atolls — Depth at which reef-building corals can 

 live — Vast areas in:erspersed 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 stracture — Dead and submerged reefs — Areas 

 of subsidence and elevation — Distribution of volcan'Oes — S-JMidence slow and 

 vast in amount. 



April \si. — \\'e arrived in \-iew of the Keeling- or Cocos I^land^, 

 situated in the Indian Ocean, and about six hundred miles 

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

 islands or ato',ls; 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 oft" in his boat. The histon,- of the inhabitants of this 

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



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