384 



HE CENT SHELLS. 



coral reefs. The species struck me as quite the 

 same I had recently seen on the coral reefs about 

 Torres Strait. Along with the corals were em- 

 bedded species of shells, the most common of which 

 were area, and strombus, and others, precisely as 

 they may be seen adhering to and embedded in 

 blocks of coral and coral rock on existing reefs. In 

 one cliff, about half a mile from the sea, and loO 

 feet above it, I found a tridacna (common chama 

 gigas of Fliuders, Sec.) embedded in the rock. It was 

 two feet in length, with both valves perfect and 

 closed, and it was evidently in the position in which 

 it lived and died, precisely as living and dead shells 

 of that genus may now be observed in great abun- 

 dance embedded in the surface of the reefs of Torres 

 Strait. The mass of the rock where no shells or 

 corals were visible, was evidently made up of grains 

 of those materials more or less minute, compacted 

 together, precisely as the mass of a coral reef, still 

 below water, is made up of the triturated debris of 

 those matters. Indeed, I could arrive at no other 

 conclusion, than that this was a raised coral reef, 

 which spread over all the country around Coupang. 

 If I am right in my conjecture, derived from the 

 outline of the country of this south-west end of 

 Timor, the central hills were formerly the only 

 part of the island above water, and were surrounded 

 by a fringing coral reef. As these were gradually 

 elevated, and the neighbouring sea consequently 

 became shoaler, this fringing reef was extended on 



