176 DISTRIBUTION OF CORAL-REEFS. Ch. VI. 



This latter island contains 1 in its centre a salt-water lake. 



about a mile and a half in diameter, without any communi- 

 cation with the sea, and around it the land rises gradually- 

 like a bank : the highest part is only between twenty and 

 thirty feet ; but on this part, as well as on the rest of the 

 land, (which, as Cook observes, rises above the height of a 

 true lagoon-island,) coral-rock like that on the beach Avas 

 found. In the Navigator or Samoan Archipelago, Mr. 

 Oouthouy 2 found on Manua many large fragments of coral at 

 the height of eighty feet, ' on a steep hill-side, rising half a 

 mile inland from a low sandy plain abounding in marine 

 remains.' The fragments were embedded in a mixture of 

 decomposed lava and sand. It is not stated whether they 

 were accompanied by shells, or whether the corals resembled 

 Tecent species ; as these remains were embedded, they 

 possibly may belong to a remote epoch ; but I presume 

 this was not the opinion of Mr. Couthouy. On the other 

 hand, Mr. Dana says expressly in one place, that 'no 

 satisfactory evidences of elevation were detected about these 

 islands ; ' and in another place he says (p. 326) that some of 

 the islands have probably subsided. Earthquakes are very 

 frequent in this archipelago. 



Still proceeding westward we come to the New Hebrides. 

 On these islands, Mr. G-. Bennett (author of Wanderings 

 in New South Wales) informs me that he found much coral 

 at a great altitude, which he considered of recent origin. The 

 Loyalty Islands are situated west of the New Hebrides, and 

 not far from New Caledonia ; and one of these islands has 

 been clearly shown by the Eev. W. B. Clarke (Journal of 

 Geolog. Soc. 1847, p. 61) to consist wholly of coral-rock, and 

 to have been raised within a recent period by at least two 

 distinct elevations to the height of 250 feet. The shores are 

 now fringed by reefs. Eespecting Santa Cruz and the 



1 Cook's Third Voyage (4to edit.), vol. i. p. 235 



2 Bemarks on Coral Formations, p. 50. 



