230 THE INFLUENCE OF INANIMATE SUEEOUNDINGiS. 



CHAPTER VIIT. : 



THE INFLUENCE OF WATER IN MOTION (continued). 



The Formation of the Coral Reefs of the Pelew or Palaos 

 Islands in the Pacific Ocean. 



It is always an unsatisfactory task, and often an unpleasant 

 one, to feel forced to contravene a view which is universally 

 accepted as a true one, and which is supposed to be evidently 

 sufficient to explain all the observed phenomena as completely 

 as is on the whole possible. Nevertheless I cannot here escape 

 this necessity ; for it is precisely because I delight to pay to 

 such men as Darwin and Dana the high respect that is due to 

 them, that I find it impossible to be silent on those points 

 where I dissent from their views. The constantly repeated state- 

 ment that Darwin's theory of coral reefs amply suffices to ex- 

 plain to geologists the oiigin of fossil reefs would, it is true, 

 scarcely provoke me to a discussion ; but I feel that I owe it to 

 Darwin himself, here to state once more the views I hold, 

 founded as they are on a long series of observations. For it 

 seems to me that in the second edition of his universally known 

 work on coral reefs * he has fallen into error as to some obser- 

 vations of mine, inasmuch as he has attributed to me some 

 opinions which at that time certainly I had only very lately 

 held. But it is also due to myself that I should give a more 

 detailed account of them in this place, because Dana, in the 

 second edition of his book on corals which has lately appeared, 

 has not even alluded to my views and observations, although 



* On the Struotnre and Distribution of Coral Beefs. Smith, Elder, 

 &Co. 



