THE STRAIT OF SUNDA. 165 
The whole groiipe of the Thousand Islands^ and indeed the 
greater part of all those whose surfaces are flat in tlie neigh- 
bourhood of the equator, owe their origin to the labours of 
that order of marine worms which Linneeus has arranged 
under the name of Zoophyta. These little animals, in a most 
surprizing manner, construct their calcareous habitations un- 
der an infinite variety of forms, yet with that order and 
regularity, each after its own manner, which, to the minute 
inquirer, is so discernible in every part of the creation. But 
although the eye may be convinced of the fact, it is difficult 
for the human mind to conceive the possibility of insects so » 
small being endued with the power, much less of being fur- 
nished in their own bodies with the materials, of constructing 
the immense fabrics which, in almost every part of the 
Eastern and Pacific oceans lying between the tropics, are met 
with in the shape of detached rocks, or reefs of great extent 
just even with the surface, or islands already clothed with 
plants, whose bases are fixed at the bottom of the sea 
several hundred feet in depth, where light and heat, so 
very essential to animal life, if not excluded, are sparingly 
received and feebly felt. Thousands of such rocks and reefs 
and islands are known to exist in the Eastern ocean, within, 
and even beyond, the limits of the tropics. The eastern 
coast of New Holland is almost wholly girt with reefs and 
islands of coral rock, rising perpendicularly from the bottom 
of the abyss. Captain Kent of the Buffalo, speaking of a 
coral reef of many miles in extent, on the south-west coast 
of New Caledonia, observes that " it is level with the water s 
" edge, and, towards the sea, as steep to as the wall of a 
" house ; that he sounded frequently within tA\ace the ship's 
