OF THE ISLANDS NEAR SINGAPORE, 
585 
In front of the village of Ayer Bandara, BlaMng Mati, are two 
reefs, one attached, as a fringing reef, to Pulo Brani, and the other 
to Blakang M&ti; betwixt them is a deep channel of from five to eight 
fathoms in the centre, though close to the coral it is of very little 
less depth, so little, that you can from a dry coral'reef, step into 4 
fathoms, in the next step. The Reef attached to Blakang Mati, 
whose influence is felt by those living in Ayer Banddrd, is of a trian¬ 
gular shape, the sides of the triangle not being less than \ a mile. 
The reef attached to Pulo Brani is about fth of a mile long, but of 
no great breadth * at low water, spring tides, the whole of these reefs 
are uncovered, so that by lying on the reef, one can look down 
into a depth of from 4 to 9 fathoms, like as a school boy does on a 
wall and looks at the objects below, which here are living corals of 
many and wondrous shapes, with tints so beautiful that nothing on 
earth can equal them. While the lovely coral fish, vyeing with their 
abodes in the liveliness of their colors, are to be seen peeping out of 
every crevice, on the reef, which at full tide has but a few feet of 
water to cover it, and is exposed at low water, are to be seen nothing 
but dead masses of coral with living ones of a different species 
fringing them, and here and there in spite of the sand, a few shoots 
of the branching madrepores, and a few detached madrepora fun- 
gia. This paper will not allow me to detail all the varieties of co¬ 
ral there to be met with, sufficient for us is the fact, that while all 
in deep water and in the shelving dyke seems to he living coral, 
what is exposed on the reef is about f rd living, or rather has been 
lately living, but is now in the progress of decaying. The researches 
of many naturalists prove, that from immense depths, the coral has 
the tendency to grow upwards, but when it reaches that height, 
which exposes it to the atmosphere, and uncovers it at low tides, it 
dies, the part breaks off, is swept on shore and there it remains un¬ 
til its animal particles have changed their manner of existence, and 
the earthly passes into detritus to form a sandy beach. Some corals, 
as a species of Porites, seem to live where they are subject to par¬ 
tial exposure for a few days, but all naturalists and practical men 
are of opinion that generally partial exposure to the sun kills the 
Zoophytes, that inhabit the cells of the coral; sand and mud and 
detritus brought from the shore, or formed from the dead coral, will 
also kill the living coral. Fresh water seems to act as a posion to 
all the Coralline Polips, for no coral is ever deposited where a river 
pours its contents into the sea, hence Darwin accounts for the chan- 
