CORAL ISLANDS. 
23 
lese islands are in general well wooded. It is almost always the case 
la ^ le sumn iits of the Coral Islands, which emerge simultaneously 
iounc another submarine summit, join and form a circuit in the shape 
a riri S> the centre of which is a little lake, in which are found large 
quantities of shells producing pearls and mother-of-pearl. The islands 
k' 1 en w nd WhitsunJa y> ' n the archipelago of Pomotou, are of this 
unc . ith time, this ring grows broader ; the openings, which gave 
access to the interior lagoons, close ; and when the little interior lake 
y 6611 ed 01 tlried up, the island becomes gradually like an 
naij k and. The archipelagoes of the Maldives, Chagos, and 
e accac iv es, in the south of India, are all of madrevoric origin. 
Among those islands, designated under the name of atolls, there are 
L T Z™ tllat 0ur fathers mi s ht have seen them rise from the 
ned ol the ocean. 
*SS re 8* ti0l “ f »™ numerous reefs. The large islands of this 
«■. slow wort 
renders from the coast, 
CefisIVc “ f “f T, “ “*> *■* tSitiei: 
kreri r'S tt,, k T “ d miles long, and has an average 
hut ? m,les ’ p™« > «"*«» of thirty-one thonamd nigh 
hundred and sixty square miles. to 
the sea is often 01 f 1<(1 V are always perpendicular, and 
SomTtLos he d fl . ' rti “ ‘ he no'Skkourhood of these islands, 
of the water- !i' l 'j ltea " 18 des troyed, and lowered by the action 
new L TLe^raS t ** T * aS “' “ 
mit of wKA T t Utl rests on a beanie shell, the sum- 
I sea. ‘ * mi ‘ e “ d * 1“** “k»« the level of 
“ Verl fnteresting description of the atolls of 
ivet ft fe T t *— tr ° m th “ a “ ri P‘™ ™e delails vela- 
tive to these extraordinary formations. 
J! WaS ‘T r “T! y bellCV6d that tho circular structure of coral reefs 
edifices' 80 But °tl ’ V< ^ aillC “ aters ’ "P on which the P ol ypi 'built up their 
general dfl u T nT ^ ^ &CCOrd w,th fact ’ alld it seems, in 
the hi i r T a VOlCaniC upbeaval 0f the g^nd as 
madre P° ric h'fmations ; for the polypi cannot live under 
