76 
FRINGING REEFS. 
Oh. IIL 
and front the shores of continents. In the charts 
of the eastern coast of Africa, by Captain Owen, 
many extensive fringing-reefs are laid down ; — thus, 
for a space of nearly 40 miles, from lat. 1° 5' to 
1° 45' S., a reef fringes the shore at an average 
distance of rather more than one mile, and therefore 
at a greater distance than is usual in reefs of this 
class ; hut as the coast-land is not high, and as the 
bottom shoals very gradually, (the depth being only 
from 8 to 14 fathoms at a mile and a-half outside the 
reef), its extension thus far from the land offers no 
difficulty. The external margin of this reef is de- 
scribed as formed of projecting points ; and within 
it there is a channel from six to twelve feet deep, 
with patches of living coral. At Mukdeesha (lat. 
2° V N.) ‘ the port is formed,’ it is said, 1 * by a long 
reef extending eastward four or five miles, within 
which there is a narrow channel, with ten to twelve 
feet of water at low spring tides : ’ it lies at the distance 
of a quarter of a mile from the shore. Again, in the 
plan of Mombas (lat. 4° S.) a reef extends for thirty- 
six miles, at the distance of from half a mile to one 
mile and a-quarter from the shore ; within it, there 
is a channel navigable 4 for canoes and small craft,’ 
between six and fifteen feet deep : outside the reef the 
depth is about 30 fathoms at the distance of nearly 
half a mile. Part of this reef is very symmetrical, and 
has a uniform breadth of 200 yards. 
1 Owen’s Africa, vol. i. p. 357 ; from which work the foregoing 
facts are likewise taken. 
