370 



GOMAM. 



[chap. 3f XT, 



opinions could have arisen it is difficult to undei-atand, 

 unless the}- are derived from Arab priests, or hadjis re- 

 turned from Mecca, who may have heard of tlie ancient 

 prowess of the Turkish armies when they made all Europe 

 tremble, and suppose that their character and warlike 

 capacity must be the same at the present time. 



GORAii, 



. A steiuly south-east wind having; (^et in, we returned to 

 Manowolko on the 25th of April, ami tlie day after crossed 

 over to Oodor, the chief village of Goram. 



Around this island extends^ with few interruptions, an 

 encircling coral reef about a quaiter of a mile from the 

 shore, ^nisible as a stripe of pale green water, hut only at 

 very lowest ebb-tides showing any rock above the siirfaca 

 There are several deep encrances through tliis reef, and 

 inside it there is good anchorage in all weathei"s. The land 

 rises gradually to a moderate height, and numerous small 

 streams descend on all sides. The mere existence of these 

 streams would prove that the island was not entirely coral- 

 line, as in that case all the water would sink thi-ough the 

 porous rock as it does at ilanowolko and Matabello ; but 

 we have more positive proof in the pebbles and stones of 

 their beds, which exhibit a variety of stratified crystalline 

 rocks. About a hundred yards from the beach rises a wall 

 of coral rock, ten or twenty feet high, above which is an 

 undulating surlace of nigged coral, which slopes t^oiwiwani 

 towards the interior, and then after a slight ascent is 

 bounded by a second wall of corah Similar walls occur 

 higher up, and coral is foxmd on the highest part of the 

 island. 



This peculiar structure teaches us that before the 

 coral was formed land existed in this spot ; that this 

 land sunk gradually beneath the waters, but with in- 

 tervals of rest, during which encircling reets were formed 

 around it at differcDt elevations ; that it then rose to 

 above its present elevation, and is now again sinking. 

 We infer this, because encircling reefs are a proof of 

 subsidence ; and if the island were again elevated about 

 a hundred feet, what is now the reef and the shallow 



