Ch. VI. DISTRIBUTION OF CORAL-REEFS. 
179 
latter chain, both Labillardiere and Lesson have described 
large beds of an apparently very modern madreporitic rock, 
■with the form of the corals little altered. The latter 
author 1 states that this formation composes a newer line 
of coast, modelled round an ancient one. There only re- 
mains to be described in the Pacific, that curved line of 
fringed islands, of which the Marianas form the main part. 
Of these Guam, Eota, Tinian, Saypan, and some islets 
farther north, are described by Quoy and Gaimard, 2 and 
Chamisso, 3 as chiefly composed of madreporitic limestone, 
which attains a considerable elevation, and is in several 
cases worn into successively rising cliffs : the two former 
naturalists seem to have compared the corals and shells 
with the existing ones, and state that they are of recent 
species. Peel Island, one of the Bonin or Arzobispo group, 
between the Marianas and Japan, has fringing-reefs ; and 
it has clearly been upraised to a height of at least 50 feet, 
as shown by the ridges of corals and shells extending 
uniformly at this level. 4 Fais, which lies in the prolonged 
line of the Marianas, between this group and the Pellews, 
is fringed by reefs ; it is 90 feet high, and consists entirely 
of madreporitic rock. 5 6 
In the East Indian Archipelago, many authors have 
recorded proofs of recent elevation. M. Lesson fi states that 
near Port Dory, on the north coast of New Guinea, the 
shores are flanked, to the height of 150 feet, by madre- 
poritic strata of a modern date. He mentions similar for- 
mations at Waigiou, Amboina, Bourou, Ceram, Sonda, and 
Timor: at this latter place, MM. Quoy and Gaimard 7 have 
1 Voyage cle la Coquille, Part. Zoolog. 
2 Freycinet’s Voyage autour du Monde. See also the Hydro- 
graphical Memoir, p. 215. 3 Kotzebue’s First Voyage. 
4 P. W. Graves, Journal of Geological Soc. 1855, p. 532. 
5 Lutk6’s Voyage, vol. ii. p. 304. 
6 Partie Zoolog. Voyage de la Coquille. 
7 Ann. des Scien. Nat., tom. vi. p. 281. 
