PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
191 
person must form his own judgment. I allude to the remains of the 
Matilda, a ship which a few pages back is stated to have been cast away 
upon one of these coral islands. In my description of Matilda Island, 
It is stated, that one of the anchors of this ship, a ton in weight, a four- 
pounder gun, her boilers and iron-work, are lying upon the top of the 
reef, two hundred yards from the present break of the sea, and are dry 
at low water*. The nature of these articles and the quantity of iron 
holts and other materials lying with them renders it probable that the 
Vessel went to pieces in that spot, for had the sea been heavy enough 
to wash the anchor from deeper water, the boiler must have been 
carried much beyond it ; and the question is, whether the hull of a 
Vessel of the Matilda’s tonnage could be washed upon a reef dry at 
low water, and be deposited two hundred yards within the usual break 
of the sea. The circumstance of the hatches, staves of casks, and part 
of the vessel, being deposited in parts of the dry land not far distant, 
and scarcely more than four feet from the present level of the sea, 
offers a presumption that the sea did not rise more than that height 
above its ordinary level, or it would have washed the articles further 
and left them in the lagoon, whence they would have been carried to 
sea by the current. 
The materials were not in the least overgrown with coral, nor had 
they any basin left round them by which the progress of the coral 
could be traced ; and yet, in other parts of this reef, we noticed the 
chama gigas of seven or eight inches in diameter so overgrown by it, 
that there was only a small aperture of two inches left for the ex- 
tremity of the shell to open and shut. 
When the attention of men of science was called to these singular 
formations by the voyages of Captain Cook, one opinion, among others, 
respecting their formation was, that they sprung from a small base and 
extended themselves laterally as they grew perpendicularly towards the 
surface of the sea ; and that they represented upon a large scale the 
form which is assumed by some of the corallines. In particular this 
theory was entertained by Mr. John R. Forster, who accompanied Captain 
CHAP. 
VIII. 
Feb. 
1826. 
* The rise of the tide is about two feet. 
