CONTENTS 
xii 
CHAPTER XIX 
Sydney—Excursion to Bathurst—Aspect of the woods—Party of natives—Gradual 
extinction of the aborigines—Infection generated by associated men in health— 
Blue Mountains—View of the grand gulf-like valleys—Their origin and forma¬ 
tion—Bathurst, general civility of the lower orders—State of Society-—Van 
Diemen’s Land—Hobart Town—Aborigines all banished—Mount Wellington 
—King George’s Sound — Cheerless aspect of the country — Bald Head, 
calcareous casts of branches of trees—Party of natives—Leave Australia 
Pages 459-48 o 
CHAPTER XX 
Keeling Island—Singular appearance—Scanty Flora—Transport of seeds—Birds and 
insects—Ebbing and flowing springs—Fields of dead coral—Stones transported 
in the roots of trees—Great crab—Stinging corals—Coral-eating fish—Coral 
formations—Lagoon islands or atolls—Depth at which reef-building corals can 
live—Vast areas interspersed with low coral islands—Subsidence of their founda¬ 
tions—-Barrier-reefs—Fringing-reefs—Conversion of fringing-reefs into barrier- 
reefs, and into atolls—Evidence of changes in level—Breaches in barrier-reefs— 
Maldiva atolls ; their peculiar structure—Dead and submerged reefs—Areas 
of subsidence and elevation —Distribution of volcanoes—Subsidence slow and 
vast in amount . . . . . . .481-512 
CHAPTER XXI 
Mauritius, beautiful appearance of—Great crateriform ring of mountains—Hindoos— 
St. Helena—History of the changes in the vegetation—Cause of the extinction of 
land-shells—Ascension—Variation in the imported rats—Volcanic bombs—Beds 
of infusoria—Bahia—Brazil—Splendour of tropical scenery—Pernambuco— 
Singular reefs—Slavery—Return to England—Retrospect on our voyage 
513-538 
INDEX 
539-551 
