154 CORAL-REEFS. 



The uncoloured coasts consist, first and chiefly, of those 

 where there are no coral-reefs, or such small portions as 

 to be quite insignificant. Secondly, of those coasts where 

 there are reefs, but where the sea is very shallow, for in this 

 case the reefs generally lie far from the land, and become 

 very irregular, in their forms : where they have not become 

 irregular, they have been coloured. Thirdly, if I had the 

 means of ascertaining the fact, I should not colour a reef 

 merely coating the edges of a submarine crater, or of a level 

 submerged bank; for such superficial formations differ 

 essentially, even when not in external appearance, from reefs 

 whose foundations as well as superficies have been wholly 

 formed by the growth of coral. Fourthly, in the Red 



Island, which from the high temperature of the water in the crater, may 

 be ranked as active (Berghaus, Vorbemerk, n Lief. S. 56). Malte 

 Brun, vol. xii. p. 231, says that there is a volcano near port St. Vincent 

 in New Caledonia. I believe this to be an error, arising from a smoke 

 seen on the opposite coast by Cook {2nd Voyage, vol. ii. p. 23), which 

 smoke went out at night. The Mariana Islands, especially the northern 

 ones, contain many craters (see Freycinet's Hydrog. Descript.) which are 

 not active. Von Buch, however, states (p. 462) on the authority of La 

 Peyrouse, that there are no less than seven volcanoes between these 

 islands and Japan. Gemelli Careri (Churchill's Collect., vol. iv. p. 458) 

 says there are two active volcanoes in lat. 23 30', and in lat. 24 : but 

 I have not coloured them. From the statements in Beechey's Voyage 

 (p. 518, 4to ed.), I have coloured one in the northern part of the Bonin 

 group. M. S. Julien has clearly made out from Chinese manuscripts 

 not very ancient {Comptes Rendus, 1840, p. 832), that there are two 

 active volcanoes on the eastern side of Formosa. In Torres Straits, on 

 Cap Island (9° 48' S., 142 39' E.) a volcano was seen burning with 

 great violence in 1793 by Capt. Bampton (see Introduction to Flinders' 

 Voyage, p. 41). Mr. M'Clelland {Report of Committee for investigating 

 Coal in India, p. 39) has shown that the volcanic band passing through 

 Barren Island must be extended northwards. It appears by an old 

 chart, that Cheduba was once an active volcano (see also Silli- 

 tnaris North American Journal, vol. xxxviii. p. 385). In Berghaus' 



