RAISED CORAL BLOCKS. 



3tl 



another reef sets on. These blocks are full two 

 hundred yards from the outer edge of the reef, and 

 protected by it from heavy breakers, and it is only 

 at high water that the last curl of surf reaches 

 them through the gap to the southward. No 

 conceivable storm could lift them into their present 

 condition, with the reef around having its pre- 

 sent extension. They not only rested on the reef, 

 but appeared to pass downwards into it as if forming 

 part of its mass. They were composed wholly of a 

 species of porites, very solid and massive, with com- 

 paratively small cells. They seemed to be in the 

 position of growth with the cells all pointing up- 

 wards. The blocks were often as much as 20 or 

 15 feet in length, and rose from the reef to a height 

 of 10 or 12 feet ; they were very rugged, and 

 apparently much worn, the cells being apparent at 

 the surface in the more sheltered hollows only of the 

 masses. They ran along a line parallel in the inner 

 edge of the reef for three or four hundred yards. 

 High water mark was very apparent on them, form- 

 ing a horizontal line, below which they were much 

 smoother than above it. They ended upwards 

 in sharp points and crags, much honeycombed 

 and excessively rugged. From high water mark to 

 some of their summits was about eight feet, and a 

 sufficiently large mass of them was visible at high 

 water, to shew like a line of large black rocks, at a 

 distance of two miles. 1 examined them attentively, 

 and walked about them at low water, and could form 



