,
compound animals, commence their operations at the bottom of the sea,
and proceed upwards, towards the surface, spreading themselves in
various ramifications; the older members of the mass become concrete,
petrify, and form dangerous shoals; the superior portion of these
little colonists always being the last produced, in its turn generates
myriads of others, and so on, ad infinitum, till they reach the surface
of the ocean. These coral reefs and shoals are found in most parts of
the world, within the tropics; but the waters of the eastern hemisphere
seem to be peculiarly congenial to their production, and, indeed, there
appear to be certain spaces or regions in these seas, which are their
favorite haunts. Among many others may be mentioned the Mozambique
channel, and that tract of ocean, from the eastern coast of Africa,
quite across to the coast of Malabar, including the Mahe, Chagas,
Maldive and Laccadive archipelagos; the southeastern part of the China
sea; the Red sea; the eastern part of Java; the coasts of all the Sunda
islands; and various places in the Pacific ocean. These shoals, when
they begin to emerge from the sea, are frequented by aquatic fowls,
whose feathers, and other deposits, combined with the fortuitous
landing of drifts of wood, weeds, and various other substances from
the adjacent lands, in the course of time form superaqueous banks,
of considerable elevation; and the broken fragments of coral thrown
up by the waves, slowly, but constantly increase their horizontal
diameter. Coconuts are frequently seen floating upon the sea in these
regions, some of which are no doubt thrown upon the shores of the
new created lands; from which accidental circumstance this fruit is
there propagated. Vagrant birds unconsciously deposit the germs of
various other productions of the vegetable kingdom, which in due
season spring up and clothe their surfaces with verdure; and the
natural accumulation of dead and putrid vegetation serves to assist
in the formation of a rich and productive soil, and to increase the
altitudes of these new creations. As I have been always much amused
and interested by this subject, and had frequent opportunities,
during many years' experience, to observe and examine these shoals in
their various stages of subaqueous progress, and subsequent emersion
I am convinced that not only many considerable islands, but extensive
insular groups, owe their existence to the above origin."

[The peop