EAST-INDIAN AKCHIPELAGO. 231 



doubt that the reef is of coral, and therefore have coloured 

 it red. 



Java. — My information regarding the reefs of this great 

 island is derived from the chart just mentioned. The greater 

 part of Madura is represented in it as regularly fringed, and 

 likewise portions of the coast of Java immediately south of it. 

 Dr. Horsfield informs me that coral is very abundant near 

 Sourabaya. The adjoining islets, and parts of the N. coast of 

 Java, west of Point Buang, or Japara, are fringed by reefs, 

 said to be of coral. Lubeclc, or Bavian Islands, lying at some 

 distance from the shore of Java, are regularly fringed by coral- 

 reefs : Curimon Java appears equally so, though it is not 

 directly said that the reefs are of coral ; there is a depth of 

 between 30 and 40 fathoms round these islands. Parts of the 

 shore of Sunda Straits, where the water is from 40 to 80 

 fathoms deep, and the islets near Batavia appear in several 

 charts to be fringed. In the Dutch chart the southern shore, 

 in the narrowest part of the island, is in two places fringed by 

 reefs of coral. "West of Segorrowodee Bay, and the extreme 

 S.E. and E. shores are likewise fringed by coral-reefs ; all the 

 above-mentioned places coloured red. 



Macassar Strait : the east coast of Borneo appears, in most 

 parts, free from reefs, and where they occur, as on the coast 

 of Pamaroong, the sea is very shallow; hence no part is 

 coloured. In Macassar Strait itself, in about lat. 2° S., there 

 are many small islands with coral shoals projecting far from 

 them. There are also (old charts by Dalrymple) numerous 

 little flats of coral, not rising to the surface of the water, and 

 shelving suddenly from five fathoms to no bottom with 50 

 fathoms ; they do not appear to have a lagoon-like structure. 

 There are similar coral-shoals a little farther south ; and in lat. 

 4° 55' there are two, which are engraved from modern sur- 

 veys, in a manner which may represent an annular reef with 

 deep water inside : Capt. Moresby, however, who was formerly 

 in this sea, doubts this fact, so that I have left them un- 



