subside. Now as the island sinks down, either a few feet at a time or quite insensibly, we may safely infer, from what
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AA. Outer edges of the fringing-reef, at the level of the sea. BB. The shores of the fringed island.
A′A′. Outer edges of the reef, after its upward growth during a period of subsidence, now converted into a barrier, with islets on it. B'B'. The shores of the now encircled island. CC. Lagoon-channel.
N.B. In this and the following woodcut, the subsidence of the land could be represented only by an apparent rise in the level of the sea.
is known of the conditions favourable to the growth of coral, that the living masses, bathed by the surf on the margin of the reef, will soon regain the surface. The water, however, will encroach little by little on the shore, the island becoming lower and smaller, and the space between the inner edge of the reef and the beach proportionally broader. A section of the reef and island in this state, after a subsidence of several hundred feet, is given by the dotted lines. Coral islets are supposed to have been formed on the reef; and a ship is anchored in the lagoon-channel. This channel will be more or less deep, according to the rate of subsidence, to the amount of sediment accumulated in it, and to the growth of the delicately branched corals which can live there. The section in this state resembles in every respect one drawn through an encircled island: in fact, it is a real section (on the scale of ·517 of an inch to a mile) through Bolabola in the Pacific. We can now at once see why encircling barrier-reefs stand so far from the shores which they front. We can also perceive, that a line drawn perpendicularly down from the outer edge of the new reef, to the foundation of solid rock beneath the old fringing-reef, will exceed by as many feet as there have been feet of subsidence, that small limit of depth at which the effective corals can live:—the little architects having built up their great wall-like mass, as the whole sank down, upon a basis formed of other corals and their conso-
