184 DISTRIBUTION OF CORAL-REEFS. Ch. VL 
On reviewing the above details it is impossible not 
to be struck with the number of cases in which upraised 
organic remains, apparently belonging to the recent 
period, have been found on the shores now fringed by 
reefs, and which are coloured red on our map. It may, 
however, be thought that similar proofs of elevation 
could be found on the coasts coloured blue, and which 
we have good reason to believe have recently subsided ; 
but such proofs cannot be found, with the few follow- 
ing and doubtful exceptions. 
The entire area of the Eed Sea appears to have been 
upraised within a late tertiary period ; nevertheless I 
have been compelled, though on unsatisfactory evidence 
(given in the Appendix), to class the reefs in the middle 
part of the coast, not as fringing, but as barrier-reefs. 
If, however, the statements should prove accurate re- 
specting the less height of the tertiary beds in the 
middle, compared with the northern and southern 
districts, we might well suspect that the former had 
subsided subsequently to a general elevation by which 
the whole area had previously been upraised. Several 
authors 1 have observed shells and corals high up on the 
p. 14. — On the shores of Mexico, Humboldt, Polit. Essay on New 
Spain, vol. i. p. 62. (I have also some corroborative facts with 
respect to the shores of Mexico.) — Honduras and the Antilles, Lyell’s 
Principles, 5th ed. vol. iv. p. 22. — Santa Cruz and Barbadoes, Prof. 
Hovey, Silliman’s Journ. vol. xxxv. p. 74. — St. Domingo, Courro- 
jolles Jour, de Phys. tom. liv. p. 106. — Bahamas United Service 
Journ. No. lxxi. pp. 218 and 224. — Jamaica, De la Beclie, Geol. Man 
p. 142. — Cuba, Taylor in Lond. and Edin. Phil. Mag. vol. xi. p. 17. 
Dr. Daubeney also at a meeting of the Geolog. Soc. orally described 
some very modern beds lying on the N.W. parts of Cuba. I might 
have added many other less important references. [See Appendix II.] 
1 Ellis, in his Polynesian Researches, was the first to call atten- 
