Seoi. I. 
KEELING ATOLL. 
25 
stumps of others on the beach, where the inhabitants 
assured us the cocoa-nut could not now grow. Capt. 
FitzRoy pointed out to me, near the settlement, the 
foundation posts of a shed, now washed by every tide, 
but which the inhabitants stated, had seven years 
before stood above high water-mark. In the calm 
waters of the lagoon, directly connected with a great, 
and therefore stable ocean, it seems very improbable 
that a change in the currents, sufficiently great to 
cause the water to eat into the land on all sides, should 
have taken place within a limited period. From these 
considerations I inferred, that probably the atoll had 
lately subsided to a small amount ; and this inference 
was strengthened by the circumstance, that in 1834, 
two years before our visit, the island had been shaken 
by a severe earthquake, and by two slighter ones during 
the ten previous years. If, during these subterranean 
disturbances, the atoll did subside, the downward 
movement must have been very small, as we must con- 
clude from the fields of dead coral still lipping the 
surface of the lagoon, and from the breakers on the 
western shore not having yet regained the line of their 
former action. The subsidence must, also, have been 
preceded by a long period of rest, during which the 
islets extended to their present size, and the living 
margin of the reef grew either upwards, or as I believe 
outwards, to its present distance from the beach. 
Whether this view be correct or not, the above 
facts are worthy of attention, as showing how severe a 
struggle is in progress on these low coral- formations 
