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thus happen that even where subsidence has recently occurred, 
barrier reefs, ordinarily associated with subsiding coasts, are 
replaced by fringing reefs, because the subsidence has been 
so rapid that any reefs formed before it took place have been 
drowned; therefore the present fringing reefs may be called 
of a new generation. 
It is interesting further to note that DArwin explicitly re- 
cognized this possibility, although he did not find any examples 
which he thought came under it. He treated all existing fring- 
ing reefs as formed on stationary or rising coasts, although 
he clearly announced the possibility of their occurrence, as 
above, on coasts of rapid subsidence. 
.I am persuaded that the fringing reefs of the Philippine 
Islands include many examples of this kind; along the western 
coast of Palawan, for example, where the extraordinarily 
embayed shore line indicates recent subsidence, and where a 
broad submerged platform indicates a submerged barrier reef; 
on the shore line of today the fringing reef of new generation 
is as a rule very narrow. 
In case you thiak it would aid other observers in the study 
of coral reefs if you should publish the above suggestions in 
one of your local scientific journals, you are at liberty to do so- 
Cambridge, Mass. Febr. 7. 1917. 
