(20/10. I exclude, of course, some soil which has been
imported here in vessels from Malacca and Java, and likewise some
small fragments of pumice, drifted here by the waves. The one block
of greenstone, moreover, on the northern island must be excepted.)
We feel surprise when travellers tell us of the vast dimensions of
the Pyramids and other great ruins, but how utterly insignificant
are the greatest of these, when compared to these mountains of
stone accumulated by the agency of various minute and tender
animals! This is a wonder which does not at first strike the eye of
the body, but, after reflection, the eye of reason.
(PLATE 93. WHITSUNDAY ISLAND.)
I will now give a very brief account of the three great classes of
coral-reefs; namely, Atolls, Barrier, and Fringing Reefs, and will
explain my views on their formation. (20/11. These were first read
before the Geological Society in May 1837 and have since been
developed in a separate volume on the "Structure and Distribution
of Coral Reefs.") Almost every voyager who has crossed the Pacific
has expressed his unbounded astonishment at the lagoon islands, or
as I shall for the future call them by their Indian name of atolls,
and has attempted some explanation.
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