703 
DU. little’s cohal theory 
reefs of all sizes; and that which fronts one side, and encircles both 
ends, of New Caledonia is 400 miles long. Internally these reefs, 
slope gently into the lagoon channel or end in a perpendicular wall, 
and in the case of fringing reefs, their extent depends on the slope 
of the land, though they rarely exceed a mile in breadth.* 
I must however, to afford your readers who may be unable to 
refer to the work some idea of the extent of the coral formation, 
extract the following passage from Darwin’s Naturalist’s voyage. 
“ There are (he writes) enormous Areas in the Pacific and Indian 
Oceans in which every single island is of coral formation 
and raised only to that height to which the waves can throw up 
fragments, and the winds pile up sand . Thus the Radock group 
of atolls is 520 miles long and 240 broad ; the Low Archipelago is 
elliptic formed, 840 in its longer and 420 in its shorter axis : there 
are other small groups and single low islands between these two 
Archipelagoes making a linear space actually more than 4,000 
miles in length, in which not one single island rises above the speci¬ 
fied height.” 
When we further consider that on this Ocean there are several 
thousand islands, each island presenting some surface of exposed 
coral reef, and many of these exposed coral reefs being of great 
extent as above shown, and when we reflect on the amount of 
animal decomposition ever generating miasm going on, on this 
vast surface of reef, together with the total absence over vast spaces 
of any screen from mountain ranges or forests, to intercept the 
intense accumulation of miasm in a moist and hot climate, we 
must conclude, if the theory maintained by Dr Little be correct, 
that the islands of the Pacific (if they support life at all) must 
have a climate the most unhealthy in the world—or (as is the fact) 
we must be driven to allow that these islands being healthy and 
containing a vigorous and noble race, that the theory of coral reefs 
as the cause of fever, is utterly untenable. 
The Barrier reefs extend l,260f miles, and Torres Straits within 
the Barrier stretch between the shores of Australia and New Guinea 
for two degrees further. In this space are numerous islands and 
a very great extent of coral reefs exposed at low water, which are 
marked in the survey of Captain King. It will be sufficient for 
my purpose to refer your readers to these charts, and to say that the 
natives of these hundred isles, enjoy health and a vigorous frame, 
and that Europeans have been exposed amid these water washed 
coral reefs, from the time of Captain Cook to the present day, 
* Darwin. The earlier voyagers (according to this talented author) fancied that 
the coral building animals instinctively built up their great circles to afford them¬ 
selves protection in the inner parts, he adds “on this view many species of distinct 
genera and families are supposed to combine for one end ; and of such a combina¬ 
tion not a single instance can be found in the whole of nature.” Dr Little holds 
this theory, but it is-now certain that the utmost depth at which corah can construct 
reefs is between 20 and 30 fathom. 
t Jukes. 
