Ch. V. OF COKAL-KEEFS. 127 



be apparent would be, the water sometimes encroaching 

 slowly on the land, and the land again recovering by 

 the accumulation of detritus its former extent, and 

 perhaps sometimes the conversion of an atoll with coral 

 islets on it, into a bare or into a sunken annular reef. 

 Such changes would naturally take place at the periods 

 w T hen the sea rose above its usual limits during a gale 

 of more than ordinary strength ; and the effects of the 

 two causes would be hardly distinguishable. In Kotze- 

 bue's Voyage there are accounts of islands, both in the 

 Caroline and Marshall Archipelagoes, which have been 

 partly washed away during hurricanes ; and Kadu, the 

 native who was on board one of the Eussian vessels, 

 said ' he saw the sea at Eadack rise to the feet of the 

 cocoa-nut trees ; but it was conjured in time.' 1 A storm 

 lately entirely swept away two of the Caroline Islands 

 and converted them into shoals ; it also partly destroyed 

 two other islands. 2 According to a tradition which was 

 communicated to Captain FitzEoy, it is believed in the 

 Low Archipelago, that the arrival of the first ship caused 

 a great inundation which destroyed many lives. Mr. 

 Stutchbury relates that in 1825, the western side of 

 Chain Atoll in the same group, was completely de- 

 vastated by a hurricane, and not less than 300 lives 

 lost : ' in this instance it was evident, even to the 

 natives, that the hurricane alone was not sufficient to 

 account for the violent agitation of the ocean.' 3 That 



1 Kofzebue's First Voyage, vol. iii. p. 168. 



2 M. Desmoulins in Comptes Kendus, 1840, p. 837- 



3 West of England Journal, No. 1, p. 35. 



