93 HANDY BOOK OP 



superficial width of the reef varies in different parts from 

 some hundred feet to a mile. Probably this coralline wall, 

 whose dimensions, it will be seen, laugh to scorn every 

 human construction, is the most magnificent erection of the 

 sort which the present epoch of creation has to offer us. 



There is a large number of these island-girdling reefs, 

 especially in the Pacific. Such, among others, is Tahiti, 

 the Queen of Polynesia, with its girdle of palms and bread- 

 fruit trees. This paradisaical mountainous island rises in 

 the midst of a calm sea, which the Coral wall cuts off from 

 the violent surf of the ocean. 



The encircling reefs are found at a very great distance 

 from the island they protect. Thus, the distance between 

 New Caledonia and its coralline wall is no less than one 

 hundred and forty miles. 



The third variety of Coral-banks (Atolls, or Lagoon islands) 

 differs from the former, in the fact that it does not enclose a 

 verdant isle, but merely a central sea, or great expanse of 

 water. Such Atolls are found close together in what is 

 called the Coral Sea, between the northern coast of New 

 Holland, New Caledonia, the Solomon's Islands, and the 

 Louisiadian Archipelago ; in the low archipelago, formed of 

 eighty islands ; at the Eeejee, Ellice, and Gilbert Islands; 

 in the Indian Ocean, to the north-east of Madagascar, under 

 the name of the Atoll Group of Sayo de Malha ; at the Mar- 

 shall Islands (Radack and Ralick), to the east of the La- 

 drones ; in the Maldive and Laccadive Archipelagos, and in 

 many other parts of the tropical ocean. 



Between the tropics, the constant action of the trade winds 

 on the boundless surface of the sea produces breakers far 

 more terrible than those of our temperate zone, and of inces- 

 sant fury. It is impossible to regard these hoarsely-growl- 

 ing waves without entertaining the conviction that even the 

 hardest rock must eventually yield to such a force. But 

 the low coralline banks victoriously resist such attacks ; for 

 here a new living power enters the lists against blind 



