344 ARGUMENTS FOR ELEVATION. 



tion to this hypothesis, and must confess I failed to 

 do so. The reader is in possession of all the direct 

 observations I could collect in favour of either the 

 elevation or the stationary position of the district. 

 Admitting the full force of these, and supposing 

 them sufficient to prove that the north-east coast 

 and its barrier reefs have been stationary for a long 

 period of time (say two or three thousand years), or 

 have even been elevated a little in particular locali- 

 ties, this is no valid objection to the hypothesis ; 

 because, previously to this time, depression might 

 have been taking place throughout a far more 

 extensive period. The elevation above the sea of 

 the southern portion of Australia, during or since 

 the tertiary times (an elevation that has certainly 

 taken place to an amount of more than 500 feet at 

 least), is no argument against the contemporaneous 

 or subsequent depression of the north-east coast. 

 Not only did I fail to find any weighty objection 



up to a certain height, which afterwards became covered by the 

 known species, the only method of discovering them would be 

 by impressions on the arming of a broad deep-sea lead, either on 

 the weather edge of a coral reef, or by a lucky cast in some spot 

 not yet covered by the known species. To get deep soundings, 

 however, so near the weather edge of a coral reef is a very hazard- 

 ous proceeding, and only practicable in certain favourable locali- 

 ties. After all, the existence of such species of corals is a mere 

 gratuitous supposition, not admissible into our reasonings, and I 

 suppose their occurrence at great depths would be rendered 

 highly improbable on account of the conditions of light, tem- 

 perature, and pressure under which they must necessarily be 

 placed. 



