CORALLINES. 
175 
compose the whole wood ; there are, however, five or six other trees. 
One of these grows to a very large size, hut, from the extreme softness 
°f its -wood, it is useless ; another sort affords excellent timber for 
shipbuilding. Besides the trees, the number of plants is exceedingly 
limited, and consist of insignificant weeds. In my collection, which 
includes, I believe, nearly the perfect Flora, there are twenty species, 
without reckoning a moss, lichen, and fungus. To this number two 
trees must be added, one of which was not in flower, and the other I 
only heard of. The latter is a solitary tree of its kind, and grows 
^ear the beach, where, without doubt, the one seed was thrown up by 
the waves. 
“ The next day I employed myself in examining the very interest- 
Ul g yet simple structure and origin of these islands. The water 
being unusually smooth, I waded over the flat of dead rock as far as 
tlie living mounds of coral, on which the swell of the open sea breaks. 
In some of the gulleys and hollows there were beautiful green and 
°ther coloured fishes, and the forms and tints of many of the zoophytes 
Were admirable. It is excusable to grow enthusiastic over the infinite 
timber of organic beings with which the sea of the Tropics, so prodigal 
°i' life, teems ; yet I must confess, I think those naturalists who have 
described in well-known words the submarine grottoes, decked with a 
thousand beauties, have indulged in rather exuberant language. 
“ I accompanied Captain Fitzroy to an island at the head of the 
lagoon ; the channel was exceedingly intricate, winding through fields 
°i delicately-branched corals. At the head of the lagoon we crossed a 
Harrow islet, and found a great surf breaking on the windward coast. 
1 can hardly explain the reason, but there is, to my mind, much 
8 r andeur J n the view of the outer shores of these lagoon islands. 
Ue) ~e is a simplicity in the barrier-like beach, the margin of green 
n shes and tall cocoa-nuts, the solid flat of dead coral-rock, strewed 
le >e and there with great loose fragments, and the line of furious 
takers, all rounding away towards either hand. The ocean, throwing 
ds waters over the broad reef, appears an invincible, all-powerful 
enemy ; y e t we see ;t resisted and even conquered by means which at 
llrst seem most weak and inefficient. It is not that the ocean spares 
Ihe rock of coral ; the great fragments scattered over the reef, and 
heaped on the beach whence the tall cocoa-nut springs, plainly be- 
N P e ak the unrelenting power of the waves. Nor are any periods of 
