Nov.] 



CORAL ON LAND. 



301 



or eight thousand feet above the level of the sea. On some of these 

 summits the coral is entirely in its original state, standing exactly as 

 it does in the coral beds which are seen beneath the surface of the 

 sea. T found this submarine production to be friable in various de- 

 grees ; the extremities of some of the branches, being from three to 

 four feet above the sand, were easily reduced to powder ; while those 

 that were in the valleys, or near the surface of the sand, required some 

 force to break them from the rocks in which they appeared to be 

 rooted. 



I have frequently seen coral on land, a mile or two from the sea- 

 shore, but never so far from the ocean, or at so great an elevation, as 

 in the present instance, nor in the same state of perfection. The ques- 

 tion naturally arises, how came it here, unless this part of the conti- 

 nent once formed part of the ocean's bed ? If so, at what period of 

 time did it emerge from the watery element t Can philosophy answer 

 these questions ? 



Perhaps every reader is not aware that coral is an animal production. 

 It was formerly supposed to be of a vegetable nature, but is now found 

 to be composed of what men of science term a " congeries of animals, 

 endued with the faculty of moving spontaneously." Coral is, in fact, 

 a mass of minute animals adhering together in the form of vegetable 

 branches ; taking root like plants, and growing up in stems. They are 

 different from plants, however, inasmuch as they are furnished with 

 sensation and spontaneous motion ; and they differ from other animals 

 in being destitute of blood-vessels, vertebrae, spinal marrow, and con- 

 necting muscles and limbs for locomotion. They are distinguished by 

 the form of their branches, and are found in the ocean adhering to 

 stones, bones, shells, &c. The islands in the South Sea are mostly 

 coral rocks covered with earth. The coral animals begin their labours 

 on the summits of submarine mountains, and work up to the surface. 



The immense numbers of this class of zoophytes must exceed the 

 furthest stretch of human imagination. Chains of coral reefs may be 

 traced from the Sandwich Islands, in the Pacific Ocean, to the coast 

 of Sumatra, a distance of nearly six thousand miles, with a depth and 

 width correspondingly vast. This is one of the numerous subjects 

 which a reflecting mind cannot contemplate without being lost and swal- 

 lowed up in a vortex of wonder and astonishment ! " How wonderful 

 are Thy works ! In wisdom Thou hast made them all !" 



In this excursion I found copper, lead, and iron ores ; and from un- 

 equivocal indications I have no doubt that gold and silver ore may be 

 found in this part of the country ; together with precious stones, spices, 

 and valuable drugs. I also collected several large grains of gold-dust 

 from broken quartz-rock, and among the gravel and sand produced by 

 its fragments, from which I infer that considerable quantities of that 

 precious article might be obtained through the assistance of the natives. 

 I regretted very much that on this occasion I was not accompanied by 

 some scientific gentleman, well versed in mineralogy, botany, &c. 

 Those gentlemen, for instance, who sailed from New- York in the fol- 

 lowing year (1829), on board the brigs Seraph and Anawan, of that 

 port, would have found an ample field for their scientific researches in 



