Bettoeen the Archipelagos.'] TERRA AUSTRALTS. 97 
thirty-three leagues ; and that of the level bank, from near Cape isos. 
Pasley where it was first seen from the sea, is no less than one wednes!^. 
hundred and forty-five leagues. The height of this extraordinary bank 
is nearly the same throughout, being no where less, by estimation, 
than four hundred, nor any where more than six hundred feet. 
In the first twenty leagues the ragged tops of some inland moun- 
tains were visible over it ; but during the remainder of its long course 
the bank was the limit of our view. 
This equality of elevation for so great an extent, and the 
evidently calcareous nature of the bank, at least in the upper two 
hundred feet, would bespeak it to have been the exterior line of a 
vast coral reef, which is always more elevated than the interior parts, 
and commonly level with high water mark. From the gradual sub- 
siding of the sea, or perhaps by a sudden convulsion of nature, this 
bank may have attained its present height above the surface ; and 
however extraordinary such a change may appear, yet, when it is 
recollected that branches of coral still exist upon Bald Head, at the 
elevation of four hundred or more feet, this supposition assumes a 
great degree of probability ; and it would further seem, that the 
subsiding of the waters has not been at a period very remote, since 
these frail branches have yet neither been all beaten down nor 
mouldered away by the wind and weather. 
If this supposition be well founded, it may, with the fact of 
no hill or other object having been perceived above the bank in the 
greater part of its course, assist in forming some conjecture of 
what may be within it ; which cannot, as I judge in such case, 
be other than flat, sandy plains, or water. The bank may even 
be a narrow barrier between an interior, and the exterior sea, and 
much do I regret the not having formed an idea of this probability 
at the time ; for notwithstanding the great difficulty and risk, I should 
certainly have attempted a landing upon some part of the coast, to 
ascertain a fact of so much importance. 
