up, animals arrive, and man himself finds it 

 a convenient residence. We give here his state- 

 ment of some proceedings of these animals, 

 which have a bearing upon the principal 

 design of the present work, and seem to in- 

 dicate an instinctive sagacity in the polypes 

 far above their rank in the animal kingdom, 

 and quite inconsistent with their orga- 

 nisation. 



Speaking of Ducies Island, a formation 

 of the coral animals, he describes it as taking 

 the shape of a truncated cone, with the face 

 downwards, the form best calculated to resist 

 the action of the ocean, and then proceeds 

 to say, " The north-eastern and south- 

 western extremities are furnished with points 

 which project under water with less inclina- 

 tion than the sides of the island, and break 

 the sea before it can reach the barrier to the 

 little lagoon formed within it. It is sin- 

 gular, that these buttresses are opposed to 

 the only two quarters whence their struc- 

 ture has to apprehend danger,— that on the 

 north-east from the constant action of the 

 trade wind, and that on the other extremity, 

 from the long rolling swell from the south- 

 west so prevalent in these latitudes ; and it 

 is worthy of observation, that this barrier, 

 which has the most powerful enemy to 

 oppose, is carried out much further and with 

 less abruptness than the other." We should 

 feel some surprise if a bee, in the construc- 

 tion of its comb, should strengthen the 

 points most exposed to injury ; but that an 

 animal apparently gifted with the lowest 

 degree of sensation, and no intellect, should 

 know where to erect buttresses so as best to 

 provide for the security of its structure, in- 

 dicates, in a striking degree, the superin- 

 tendence of Providence directing its blind 

 efforts and unconscious operations. 



After considering all the wonderful facts 

 here stated with regard to the proceeding 

 and progress of these seemingly insignificant 

 animals, a speculative imagination may not 

 only picture to itself, with respect to any 

 group of coral islands, its conversion into 

 one vast plain, yielding forests of bread- 

 fruit and other trees, and ultimately sus- 

 tenance to a numerous population, and a 

 variety of animals subservient to their use ; 

 but taking a wider range, and still further 

 enlarging its view, might behold the tropical 

 portion of the vast Pacific, not only studded 

 with these islands, but exhibiting them in 

 such frequent clusters and so large, as almost 

 to form a kind of bridge of communication 

 between Asia and America. Indeed, at 

 present, we know not how far these fouuders 

 of islands may have been concerned in 

 rearing a considerable portion of those con- 

 tinents that form the old world. Calcareous 

 strata and ridges occur everywhere ; and 



though other causes may have contributed 

 to their formation, yet it is not improbable, 

 that at the time when our northern climates 

 were inhabited by tropical animals, our seas 

 also might abound in madrepores, &c, which 

 might bear their part in the erection of some 

 of our islands. 



Professor Buckland, in the appendix to 

 Captain Beechey's Voyage, states that even 

 within the arctic circle there are spots that 

 can be shown to have been once the site of 

 extensive coral reefs. The old coral reefs 

 that existed previously to the Deluge, by 

 that great catastrophe, in many cases, might 

 be formed into chalk ridges. This indeed 

 seems proved by the remains of marine ani- 

 mals, especially sea-urchins, which from this 

 circumstance the common people know by 

 the name of chalk-eggs, and which, we learn, 

 from Captain Beechey, abound on the sub- 

 merged ledges of some coral islands ; and at 

 the same period, it is surely no improbable 

 supposition, under the directing hand of 

 Him who willed to destroy the earth by the 

 waters of a flood, and at the same time de- 

 termined, according to the good pleasure of 

 his will, the precise mode of its renovation, 

 that in the course of the rise, prevalence, or 

 subsidence of the mighty waters, which, for 

 the principal part of a year, acted with irre- 

 sistible force upon the earth, considerable 

 additions might be made from the debris of 

 the earth's disrupted crust, to the reefs of 

 coral that were left unsubverted, and so many 

 islands be formed or enlarged. 



When the Creator formed the coral ani- 

 mals, what foresight, as well as power and 

 wisdom, did he manifest! That a minute 

 pouch of animated matter, with no other 

 organs than a few tentacles surrounding its 

 mouth, should be fitted to secrete calcareous 

 particles from food collected by it, to trans- 

 pire or regurgitate them so as to construct 

 for itself a limestone house ; that it should 

 be empowered perpetually to send forth 

 germs that could also act the same part ; and 

 thus in process of time, by their combined 

 efforts, build up, in the midst of the fluc- 

 tuating ocean, not merely insignificant islets, 

 but whole groups of islands, which in due 

 time are rendered fit for the habitation* of 

 man himself, and do in fact become his per- 

 manent abode — and not only this, but should 

 so order all other circumstances connected 

 with this procedure, as for instance, the 

 action of the waves and winds upon this 

 nascent little world, that when the animal 

 has built up to that point, which its nature, 

 for it cannot exist when removed from the 

 influence of its native element, enables it to 

 attain, should take up the wonderful work 

 and complete the design of the Great Cre- 

 ator, and give the structure its due elevation 

 and consolidation, should furnish it with 



