Ch. VI. KECAP1TULATI0N. 193 



find direct proofs of subsidence, although some appear- 

 ances are strongly in favour of it. On the fringed 

 coasts, however, the frequent presence of upraised 

 marine remains belonging to a recent epoch, plainly 

 shows that these coasts have been lately elevated. 



Finally, when the two great types of structure, 

 namely barrier-reefs and atolls on the one hand, 

 and fringing-reefs on the other, are laid down on a 

 map, they offer a grand and harmonious picture of 

 the movements which the crust of the earth has 

 undergone within a late period. We there see vast 

 areas rising, with volcanic matter every now and then 

 bursting forth. We see other wide spaces sinking with- 

 out any volcanic outbursts ; and we may feel sure that 

 the movement has been so slow as to have allowed the 

 corals to grow up to the surface, and so widely extended 

 as to have buried over the broad face of the ocean 

 every one of those mountains, above which the atolls 

 now stand like monuments, marking the place of their 

 burial. 



