OK, PLAIN 



materials, gradually increases in thickness, till 

 it becomes so high that it is covered only 

 during some seasons of the year by the spring 

 tides. The heat of the sun so penetrates the 

 mass of stone when it is dry, that it splits in 

 many places, and breaks off in flakes. These 

 flakes, so separated, are raised one upon an- 

 other by the waves at the time of high water. 

 The always active surf throws blocks of coral 

 (frequently of a fathom in length, and three or 

 four feet thick) and shells of marine animals 

 between and upon the foundation stones. Af- 

 ter this, the calcareous sand lies undisturbed, 

 and offers to the seeds of trees and plants, 

 cast upon it by the waves, a soil upon which 

 they rapidly grow, to overshadow its dazzling 

 white surface. Entire trunks of trees, which 

 are carried by the rivers from other countries 

 and islands, find here, at length, a resting- 

 place after their long wanderings ; with these 

 come some small animals, such as lizards and 

 insects, a3 the first inhabitants. Even before 

 the trees form a wood, the real sea-birds nestle 

 there, and strayed land-birds take refuge in 

 the bushes." 



Man finds his way to these new islands, 

 driven by tempests on his raft or canoe, or 

 prompted, in his minor voyages, by a roving 

 disposition. Reaching the unknown abode, he 

 fin s, by an admirable order of Providence, 

 the surface clothed with vegetation, prepared 

 for his reception. He sees groves of cocoa-nut 

 trees, ready to screen him by the shade of their 

 broad leaves, and to sustain him by their gene- 

 rous fruit. He constructs a but with the boughs 

 and weaves them into baskets to carry his food ; 

 he cools himself with a fan plaited from the 

 young leaflets, and shields his head from the 

 sun by a bonnet of the leaves. Sometimes he 

 clothes himself with the cloth-like substance 

 which wraps round the base of the stalks, whose 

 elastic rods, strung with filberts, are used as a 

 taper. The larger nuts, thinned and polished, 

 furnish him with beautiful goblets, the smaller 

 ones with bowls for his pipes. The dry husks 

 kindle his fires ; their fibres are twisted into 

 fishing-lines and cords for his canoes. He heals 

 bis wounds with a balsam compounded from 



TEACHING. 67 



the juice of the nut, and with the oil extracted 

 from its meat anoints his own Lmbs and em- 

 balms the bodies of the dead. The noble trunk 

 itself is far from being valueless. Sawn into 

 posts, it upholds the islander's dwelling; con- 

 verted into charcoal, it cooks his food; and, 

 supported on blocks of stone, rails in his lands. 

 He impels his canoe through the water with a 

 paddle of the wood, and goes to battle with 

 clubs and spears of the same material. 



The ocean, which begirts«his new home, 

 supplies* him with fish, and he captures the 

 sea-birds that dwell along the shore, to the 

 different inlets of which the glowing waters 

 afford him a highway. He sees JS acut e in her 

 beautiful wildness : — 



" There, far below in the peaceful sea, 

 The purple mullet and gold-fish rove ; 

 There the waters murmur tranquilly, 

 Through the bending twigs of the coral-grove. 



" There, with its waving blade of green, 



The sea-nag streams through die silent water. 

 And the crimson leaf ot the dulse is seen 

 To blush like a banner bathed in slaughter. 



" There, with a light and easy motion, 



The fan-coral sweeps through the clear deep sea, 

 And the yellow and scarlet tufts of ocean 

 Are bending like corn on the upland lea 



" And life, in rare and beautiful forms, 



Is sporting amid those bowers of stone, 

 And is safe when the wrathful spirit of storms 

 Has made the crest of the wave his own." 



Let us now rest from our Geographical 

 Lesson, and reflect upon the amasing power 

 of that great Creator, who, from beneath the 

 bosom of waters unfathomable by man, raises, 

 by means so opposite as the mighty fires of 

 the volcano, or the gentle labours of myriads of 

 animalcules — the one immediately, through u 

 great convulsion of the earth, the other imper- 

 ceptibly through the flight of unnumbered 

 years — lands whereon man may dwell, where 

 the trees of the forest put forth their luxuriant 

 branches, and various living creatures assemble, 

 to form a new world I 



