mination with regard to the inner edge of the
Great Barrier, and its contiguous islands and reefs, terminating at Booby
Island; it may not be deemed irrelevant to hazard a few remarks in
recapitulation. In the first place there was a very perceptible increase
in the elevation of the reefs and of those islands resting on similar
constructions, as we advanced to the northward. Cairncross Island, in
latitude 11 1/4 degrees South, composed of heaped up consolidated
fragments, attains an elevation of 17 feet; but its trees rise to a
height of 75 feet, whilst to the southward, in latitude 13 1/2 degrees
South the islands were partially flooded by a tide, rising only about six
feet. The reefs are all either circular or oval-shaped, with a rim rising
round them. The description of that fronting the isle we visited for
Boydan will illustrate their general character. Their northern ends are
the highest, and are almost invariably marked by a heap of dead coral and
shells, which as we have mentioned, in one or two instances, from its
white appearance has often been taken for sand.

The remarkable breaks in this singularly great extent of coral reefs,
known as the Barrier of Australia, being in direction varying from West
to West-North-West generally speaking North-West, leads me to believe
that the upheaval by which the base of this huge coral building was
formed, partakes of the general north-westerly direction, in which a
large portion of the eastern world apparently emerged from the water. A
glance at the map of that portion of the globe, will strengthen this
hypothesis, placing as it does this singular fact at once before the
reader's mind. Starting with the stupendous heights of the Himalaya
mountains, and proceeding thence to several groups of the Polynesian
islands, New Caledonia, and others, this remarkable similarity in the
trend of these portions of the earth is plainly distinguishable. It would
appear, therefore, from the general north-westerly tendency of these
upheavals, that the cavernous hollows beneath the crust of the earth,
within whose bosom originated these remarkable convulsions, have a strong
inclination in one direction, a circumstance in connection with the
earth's history of great and curious interest. With this general
statement of facts, which we note for the benefit of scientific men, and
in illustration of the singular changes which are taking place on the
surface of the globe, we return to our narrative