INSIDE AN ATOLL, KEELING ISLAND. 
CHAPTER XX 
KEELING ISLAND :-CORAL LORMATIONS 
Keeling Island—Singular appearance—Scanty Llora—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. 
April \st .—We arrived in view of the Keeling or Cocos Islands, 
situated in the Indian Ocean, and about six hundred miles 
distant from the coast of Sumatra. This is one of the lagoon 
islands (or atolls) of coral formation, similar to those in the 
Low Archipelago which we passed near. When the ship was 
in the channel at the entrance, Mr. Liesk, an English resident, 
came off in his boat. The history of the inhabitants of this 
place, in as few words as possible, is as follows. About nine 
2 I 
