Even as long ago as the year
1605, Pyrard de Laval well exclaimed, "C'est une merveille de voir
chacun de ces atollons, environn? d'un grand banc de pierre tout
autour, n'y ayant point d'artifice humain." The accompanying sketch
of Whitsunday Island in the Pacific, copied from Captain Beechey's
admirable "Voyage" (Plate 93), gives but a faint idea of the
singular aspect of an atoll: it is one of the smallest size, and
has its narrow islets united together in a ring. The immensity of
the ocean, the fury of the breakers, contrasted with the lowness of
the land and the smoothness of the bright green water within the
lagoon, can hardly be imagined without having been seen.
The earlier voyagers fancied that the coral-building animals
instinctively built up their great circles to afford themselves
protection in the inner parts; but so far is this from the truth
that those massive kinds, to whose growth on the exposed outer
shores the very existence of the reef depends, cannot live within
the lagoon, where other delicately-branching kinds flourish.
Moreover, on this view, many species of distinct genera and
families are supposed to combine for one end; and of such a
combination, not a single instance can be found in the whole of
nature.
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