THE SLOPK OF THE SEA-BOTTOM. 257 



the tops of trees in Kriangle I could clearly discern that there, 

 too, the light hue of the water to the eastward denoted a 

 shelving shore, whi'.e on the west the deep blue sea comes 

 close up to the outer edge of the reef. Anchorage can be found 

 outside the reef on the eastern coast, but not on the west, and 

 the same is true of Kossol and the northern portion of Babel- 

 thuap. "We could venture on the west side close up to the 

 reef in our schooner ; in cruising we were not forced to tack 

 tUl v/ithin a few hundred paces of the shore. This would 

 be quite impossible on the eastern side, where for the whole 

 distance from Roll to Kossol I could still clearly see the corals 

 at from one to two geographical miles from the shore. Again, 

 it is now very difficult to enter the harbour of Coroere, formerly 

 a very good one, on account of the numerou.^i shoals and the 

 shelving upwards of the sea bottom, and this I was assured of 

 by Captain Woodin at a time when I still believed implicitly in 

 the absolute correctness of the subsidence theory. Finally, on the 

 western side of Pelelew, where the reef is not a perfectly 

 characterised barrier- reef, the ' I;ady Leigh ' approached within 

 a hundred paces of the reef, while on the east coast a wide 

 belt of light blue water extends far out to sea. 



Here we find a state of things precisely the reverse of what 

 Darwin in the second edition of his book has adduced as an 

 argument against my views. Where, acoording to him, there 

 should be an extremely abrupt declivity, it is not to be found, 

 and where it does in fact occur, as on the west coast, no fringing 

 reef is formed. 



A glance at an ideal but correct section of the Pelews in 

 various spots will here throw light on what I have advanced, 

 and at the same time conclusively show that in this particular 

 instance the principles of the subsidence theory do not suffice to 

 explain the peculiar formation of the reefs. And even if, like 

 Darwin and Dana, we set aside this difficulty, so many, as 

 we have seen, still remain that their theory must call in 

 the aid of other forces — namely, currents — to enable us to 

 understand the structure and origin of these reefs. Hence, in- 

 evitably, the question arises whether perhaps the auxiliary cause, 

 which is indispensable to the subsidence theory, may not have 



