Coral Reefs Part 10

BABUYAN ISLANDS.

Horsburgh says (volume ii., page 442), coral-reefs line the sh.o.r.es of the harbour in Fuga; and the charts show there are other reefs about these islands. Camiguin has its sh.o.r.e in parts lined by coral-rock (Horsburgh, page 443); about a mile off sh.o.r.e there is between thirty and thirty-five fathoms. The plan of Port San Pio Quinto shows that its sh.o.r.es are fringed with coral; coloured red.--BASHEE Islands: Horsburgh, speaking of the southern part of the group (volume ii., page 445) says the sh.o.r.es of both islands are fortified by a reef, and through some of the gaps in it, the natives can pa.s.s in their boats in fine weather; the bottom near the land is coral-rock. From the published charts, it is evident that several of these islands are most regularly fringed; coloured red. The northern islands are left uncoloured, as I have been unable to find any account of them.--FORMOSA. The sh.o.r.es, especially the western one, seem chiefly composed of mud and sand, and I cannot make out that they are anywhere lined by reefs; except in a harbour (Horsburgh, volume ii., page 449) at the extreme northern point: hence, of course, the whole of this island is left uncoloured. The small adjoining islands are in the same case.-- PATCHOW, or MADJIKO-SIMA GROUPS. PATCHUSON has been described by Captain Broughton ("Voy. to the N. Pacific," page 191); he says, the boats, with some difficulty, found a pa.s.sage through the coral-reefs, which extend along the coast, nearly half a mile off it. The boats were well sheltered within the reef; but it does not appear that the water is deep there.

Outside the reef the depth is very irregular, varying from five to fifty fathoms; the form of the land is not very abrupt; coloured red.--TAYPIN- SAN; from the description given (page 195) by the same author, it appears that a very irregular reef extends, to the distance of several miles, from the southern island; but whether it encircles a s.p.a.ce of deep water is not evident; nor, indeed, whether these outlying reefs are connected with those more immediately adjoining the land; left uncoloured. I may here just add that the sh.o.r.e of k.u.mI (lying west of Patchow), has a narrow reef attached to it in the plan of it, in La Peyrouse's "Atlas;" but it does not appear in the account of the voyage that it is of coral; uncoloured.--LOO CHOO.

The greater part of the coast of this moderately hilly island, is skirted by reefs, which do not extend far from the sh.o.r.e, and which do not leave a channel of deep water within them, as may be seen in the charts accompanying Captain B. Hall's voyage to Loo Choo (see also remarks in Appendix, pages xxi. and xxv.). There are, however, some ports with deep water, formed by reefs in front of valleys, in the same manner as happens at Mauritius. Captain Beechey, in a letter to me, compares these reefs with those encircling the Society Islands; but there appears to me a marked difference between them, in the less distance at which the Loo Choo reefs lie from the land with relation to the probable submarine inclination, and in the absence of an interior deep water-moat or channel, parallel to the land. Hence, I have cla.s.sed these reefs with fringing-reefs, and coloured them red.--PESCADORES (west of Formosa). Dampier (volume i., page 416), has compared the appearance of the land to the southern parts of England.

The islands are interlaced with coral-reefs; but as the water is very shoal, and as spits of sand and gravel (Horsburgh, volume ii., page 450) extend far out from them, it is impossible to draw any inferences regarding the nature of the reefs.

CHINA SEA.--Proceeding from north to south, we first meet the PRATAS SHOAL (lat.i.tude 20 deg N.) which, according to Horsburgh (volume ii., page 335), is composed of coral, is of a circular form, and has a low islet on it.

The reef is on a level with the water's edge, and when the sea runs high, there are breakers mostly all round, "but the water within seems pretty deep in some places; although steep-to in most parts outside, there appear to be several parts where a ship might find anchorage outside the breakers;" coloured blue.--The PARACELLS have been accurately surveyed by Captain D. Ross, and charts on a large scale published: but few low islets have been formed on these shoals, and this seems to be a general circ.u.mstance in the China Sea; the sea close outside the reefs is very deep; several of them have a lagoon-like structure; or separate islets (PRATTLE, ROBERT, DRUMMOND, etc.) are so arranged round a moderately shallow s.p.a.ce, as to appear as if they had once formed one large atoll.-- BOMBAY SHOAL (one of the Paracells) has the form of an annular reef, and is "apparently deep within;" it seems to have an entrance (Horsburgh, volume ii., page 332) on its west side; it is very steep outside.--DISCOVERY SHOAL, also is of an oval form, with a lagoon-like s.p.a.ce within, and three openings leading into it, in which there is a depth from two to twenty fathoms. Outside, at the distance (Horsburgh, volume ii., page 333) of only twenty yards from the reef, soundings could not be obtained. The Paracells are coloured blue.--MACCLESFIELD BANK: this is a coral-bank of great size, lying east of the Paracells; some parts of the bank are level, with a sandy bottom, but, generally, the depth is very irregular. It is intersected by deep cuts or channels. I am not able to perceive in the published charts (its limits, however, are not very accurately known) whether the central part is deeper, which I suspect is the case, as in the Great Chagos Bank, in the Indian Ocean; not coloured.--SCARBOROUGH SHOAL: this coral-shoal is engraved with a double row of crosses, forming a circle, as if there was deep water within the reef: close outside there was no bottom, with a hundred fathoms; coloured blue.--The sea off the west coast of Palawan and the northern part of Borneo is strewed with shoals: SWALLOW SHOAL, according to Horsburgh (volume ii., page 431) "is formed, LIKE MOST of the shoals hereabouts, of a belt of coral-rocks, "with a basin of deep water within."--HALF-MOON SHOAL has a similar structure; Captain D.

Ross describes it, as a narrow belt of coral-rock, "with a basin of deep water in the centre," and deep sea close outside.--BOMBAY SHOAL appears (Horsburgh, volume ii., page 432) "to be a basin of smooth water surrounded by breakers." These three shoals I have coloured blue.--The PARAQUAS SHOALS are of a circular form, with deep gaps running through them; not coloured.--A bank gradually shoaling to the depth of thirty fathoms, extends to a distance of about twenty miles from the northern part of BORNEO, and to thirty miles from the northern part of PALAWAN. Near the land this bank appears tolerably free from danger, but a little further out it is thickly studded with coral-shoals, which do not generally rise quite to the surface; some of them are very steep-to, and others have a fringe of shoal-water round them. I should have thought that these shoals had level surfaces, had it not been for the statement made by Horsburgh "that most of the shoals hereabouts are formed of a belt of coral." But, perhaps that expression was more particularly applied to the shoals further in the offing. If these reefs of coral have a lagoon-like structure, they should have been coloured blue, and they would have formed an imperfect barrier in front of Palawan and the northern part of Borneo. But, as the water is not very deep, these reefs may have grown up from inequalities on the bank: I have not coloured them.--The coast of CHINA, TONQUIN, and COCHIN-CHINA, forming the western boundary of the China Sea, appear to be without reefs: with regard to the two last-mentioned coasts, I speak after examining the charts on a large scale in the "Atlas of the Voyage of the 'Favourite'."

INDIAN OCEAN.

SOUTH KEELING atoll has been specially described. Nine miles north of it lies North Keeling, a very small atoll, surveyed by the "Beagle," the lagoon of which is dry at low water.--CHRISTMAS Island, lying to the east, is a high island, without, as I have been informed by a person who pa.s.sed it, any reefs at all.--CEYLON: a s.p.a.ce about eighty miles in length of the south-western and southern sh.o.r.es of these islands has been described by Mr. Twynam ("Naut. Mag." 1836, pages 365 and 518); parts of this s.p.a.ce appear to be very regularly fringed by coral-reefs, which extend from a quarter to half a mile from the sh.o.r.e. These reefs are in places breached, and afford safe anchorage for the small trading craft. Outside, the sea gradually deepens; there is forty fathoms about six miles off sh.o.r.e: this part I have coloured red. In the published charts of Ceylon there appear to be fringing-reefs in several parts of the south-eastern sh.o.r.es, which I have also coloured red.--At Venloos Bay the sh.o.r.e is likewise fringed.

North of Trincomalee there are also reefs of the same kind. The sea off the northern part of Ceylon is exceedingly shallow; and therefore I have not coloured the reefs which fringe portions of its sh.o.r.es, and the adjoining islets, as well as the Indian promontory of MADURA.

CHAGOS, MALDIVA, AND LACCADIVE ARCHIPELAGOES.

These three great groups which have already been often noticed, are now well-known from the admirable surveys of Captain Moresby and Lieutenant Powell. The published charts, which are worthy of the most attentive examination, at once show that the CHAGOS and MALDIVA groups are entirely formed of great atolls, or lagoon-formed reefs, surmounted by islets. In the LACCADIVE group, this structure is less evident; the islets are low, not exceeding the usual height of coral-formations (see Lieutenant Wood's account, "Geographical Journal", volume vi., page 29), and most of the reefs are circular, as may be seen in the published charts; and within several of them, as I am informed by Captain Moresby, there is deepish water; these, therefore, have been coloured blue. Directly north, and almost forming part of this group, there is a long, narrow, slightly curved bank, rising out of the depths of the ocean, composed of sand, sh.e.l.ls, and decayed coral, with from twenty-three to thirty fathoms on it. I have no doubt that it has had the same origin with the other Laccadive banks; but as it does not deepen towards the centre I have not coloured it. I might have referred to other authorities regarding these three archipelagoes; but after the publication of the charts by Captain Moresby, to whose personal kindness in giving me much information I am exceedingly indebted, it would have been superfluous.

SAHIA DE MALHA bank consists of a series of narrow banks, with from eight to sixteen fathoms on them; they are arranged in a semicircular manner, round a s.p.a.ce about forty fathoms deep, which slopes on the S.E. quarter to unfathomable depths; they are steep-to on both sides, but more especially on the ocean-side. Hence this bank closely resembles in structure, and I may add from Captain Moresby's information in composition, the Pitt's Bank in the Chagos group; and the Pitt's Bank, must, after what has been shown of the Great Chagos Bank, be considered as a sunken, half-destroyed atoll; hence coloured blue.--CARGADOS CARAJOS BANK. Its southern portion consists of a large, curved, coral-shoal, with some low islets on its eastern edge, and likewise some on the western side, between which there is a depth of about twelve fathoms. Northward, a great bank extends. I cannot (probably owing to the want of perfect charts) refer this reef and bank to any cla.s.s;--therefore not coloured.--ILE DE SABLE is a little island, lying west of C. Carajos, only some toises in height ("Voyage of the 'Favourite'," volume i., page 130); it is surrounded by reefs; but its structure is unintelligible to me. There are some small banks north of it, of which I can find no clear account.--MAURITIUS. The reefs round this island have been described in the chapter on fringing-reefs; coloured red.

--RODRIGUEZ. The coral-reefs here are exceedingly extensive; in one part they project even five miles from the sh.o.r.e. As far as I can make out, there is no deep-water moat within them; and the sea outside does not deepen very suddenly. The outline, however, of the land appears to be ("Life of Sir J. Makintosh," volume ii., page 165) hilly and rugged. I am unable to decide whether these reefs belong to the barrier cla.s.s; as seems probable from their great extension, or to the fringing cla.s.s; uncoloured.

--BOURBON. The greater part of the sh.o.r.es of this island are without reefs; but Captain Carmichael (Hooker's "Bot. Misc.") states that a portion, fifteen miles in length, on the S.E. side, is imperfectly fringed with coral reefs: I have not thought this sufficient to colour the island.

SEYCh.e.l.lES.

The rocky islands of primary formation, composing this group, rise from a very extensive and tolerably level bank, having a depth between twenty and forty fathoms. In Captain Owen's chart, and in that in the "Atlas of the Voyage of the 'Favourite'," it appears that the east side of MAHE and the adjoining islands of ST. ANNE and CERF, are regularly fringed by coral-reefs.

A portion of the S.E. part of CURIEUSE Island, the N., and part of the S.W. sh.o.r.e of PRASLIN Island, and the whole west side of DIGUE Island, appear fringed. From a MS. account of these islands by Captain F. Moresby, in the Admiralty, it appears that SILHOUETTE is also fringed; he states that all these islands are formed of granite and quartz, that they rise abruptly from the sea, and that "coral-reefs have grown round them, and project for some distance." Dr. Allan, of Forres, who visited these islands, informs me that there is no deep water between the reefs and the sh.o.r.e. The above specified points have been coloured red. AMIRANTES Islands: The small islands of this neighbouring group, according to the MS. account of them by Captain F. Moresby, are situated on an extensive bank; they consist of the debris of corals and sh.e.l.ls; are only about twenty feet in height, and are environed by reefs, some attached to the sh.o.r.e, and some rather distant from it.--I have taken great pains to procure plans and information regarding the several islands lying between S.E. and S.W. of the Amirantes, and the Seych.e.l.les; relying chiefly on Captain F. Moresby and Dr. Allan, it appears that the greater number, namely--PLATTE, ALPHONSE, COETIVI, GALEGA, PROVIDENCE, ST. PIERRE, ASTOVA, a.s.sOMPTION, and GLORIOSO, are low, formed of sand or coral-rock, and irregularly shaped; they are situated on very extensive banks, and are connected with great coral-reefs. Galega is said by Dr. Allan, to be rather higher than the other islands; and St. Pierre is described by Captain F. Moresby, as being cavernous throughout, and as not consisting of either limestone or granite. These islands, as well as the Amirantes, certainly are not atoll-formed, and they differ as a group from every other group with which I am acquainted; I have not coloured them; but probably the reefs belong to the fringing cla.s.s. Their formation is attributed, both by Dr. Allan and Captain F. Moresby, to the action of the currents, here exceedingly violent, on banks, which no doubt have had an independent geological origin. They resemble in many respects some islands and banks in the West Indies, which owe their origin to a similar agency, in conjunction with an elevation of the entire area. In close vicinity to the several islands, there are three others of an apparently different nature: first, JUAN DE NOVA, which appears from some plans and accounts to be an atoll; but from others does not appear to be so; not coloured. Secondly COSMOLEDO; "this group consists of a ring of coral, ten leagues in circ.u.mference, and a quarter of a mile broad in some places, enclosing a magnificent lagoon, into which there did not appear a single opening"

(Horsburgh, volume i., page 151); coloured blue. Thirdly, ALDABRA; it consists of three islets, about twenty-five feet in height, with red cliffs (Horsburgh, volume i., page 176) surrounding a very shallow basin or lagoon. The sea is profoundly deep close to the sh.o.r.e. Viewing this island in a chart, it would be thought an atoll; but the foregoing description shows that there is something different in its nature; Dr.

Allan also states that it is cavernous, and that the coral-rock has a vitrified appearance. Is it an upheaved atoll, or the crater of a volcano?--uncoloured.

COMORO GROUP.

MAYOTTA, according to Horsburgh (volume i., page 216, 4th edition), is completely surrounded by a reef, which runs at the distance of three, four, and in some places even five miles from the land; in an old chart, published by Dalrymple, a depth in many places of thirty-six and thirty-eight fathoms is laid down within the reef. In the same chart, the s.p.a.ce of open water within the reef in some parts is even more than three miles wide: the land is bold and peaked; this island, therefore, is encircled by a well-characterised barrier-reef, and is coloured pale blue.--JOHANNA; Horsburgh says (volume I. page 217) this island from the N.W. to the S.W.

point, is bounded by a reef, at the distance of two miles from the sh.o.r.e; in some parts, however, the reef must be attached, since Lieutenant Boteler ("Narr." volume i., page 161) describes a pa.s.sage through it, within which there is room only for a few boats. Its height, as I am informed by Dr.

Allan, is about 3,500 feet; it is very precipitous, and is composed of granite, greenstone, and quartz; coloured blue.--MOHILLA; on the S. side of this island there is anchorage, in from thirty to forty-five fathoms, between a reef and the sh.o.r.e (Horsburgh, volume i., page 214); in Captain Owen's chart of Madagascar, this island is represented as encircled; coloured blue.--GREAT COMORO Island is, as I am informed by Dr. Allan, about 8,000 feet high, and apparently volcanic; it is not regularly encircled; but reefs of various shapes and dimensions, jut out from every headland on the W., S., and S.E. coasts, inside of which reefs there are channels, often parallel with the sh.o.r.e, with deep water. On the north-western coasts the reefs appear attached to the sh.o.r.es. The land near the coast is in some places bold, but generally speaking it is flat; Horsburgh says (volume i., page 214) the water is profoundly deep close to the Sh.o.r.e, from which expression I presume some parts are without reefs.

From this description I apprehend the reef belongs to the barrier cla.s.s; but I have not coloured it, as most of the charts which I have seen, represent the reefs round it as very much less extensive than round the other islands in the group.

MADAGASCAR.

My information is chiefly derived from the published charts by Captain Owen, and the accounts given by him and by Lieutenant Boteler. Commencing at the S.W. extremity of the island; towards the northern part of the STAR BANK (in lat.i.tude 25 deg S.) the coast for ten miles is fringed by a reef; coloured red. The sh.o.r.e immediately S. of ST. AUGUSTINE'S BAY appears fringed; but TULLEAR Harbour, directly N. of it, is formed by a narrow reef ten miles long, extending parallel to the sh.o.r.e, with from four to ten fathoms within it. If this reef had been more extensive, it must have been cla.s.sed as a barrier-reef; but as the line of coast falls inwards here, a submarine bank perhaps extends parallel to the sh.o.r.e, which has offered a foundation for the growth of the coral; I have left this part uncoloured.

From lat.i.tude 22 deg 16' to 21 deg 37', the sh.o.r.e is fringed by coral-reefs (see Lieutenant Boteler's "Narrative," volume ii., page 106), less than a mile in width, and with shallow water within. There are outlying coral-shoals in several parts of the offing, with about ten fathoms between them and the sh.o.r.e, and the depth of the sea one mile and a half seaward, is about thirty fathoms. The part above specified is engraved on a large scale; and as in the charts on rather a smaller scale the same fringe of reef extends as far as lat.i.tude 33 deg 15'; I have coloured the whole of this part of the coast red. The islands of JUAN DE NOVA (in lat.i.tude 17 deg S.) appear in the charts on a large scale to be fringed, but I have not been able to ascertain whether the reefs are of coral; uncoloured. The main part of the west coast appears to be low, with outlying sandbanks, which, Lieutenant Boteler (volume ii., page 106) says, "are faced on the edge of deep water by a line of sharp-pointed coral-rocks." Nevertheless I have not coloured this part, as I cannot make out by the charts that the coast itself is fringed. The headlands of NARRENDA and Pa.s.sANDAVA Bays (14 deg 40') and the islands in front of RADAMA HARBOUR are represented in the plans as regularly fringed, and have accordingly been coloured red. With respect to the EAST COAST OF MADAGASCAR, Dr. Allan informs me in a letter, that the whole line of coast, from TAMATAVE, in 18 deg 12', to C. AMBER, at the extreme northern point of the island, is bordered by coral-reefs. The land is low, uneven, and gradually rising from the coast. From Captain Owen's charts, also, the existence of these reefs, which evidently belong to the fringing cla.s.s, on some parts, namely N. of BRITISH SOUND, and near NGONCY, of the above line of coast might have been inferred. Lieutenant Boteler (volume i., page 155) speaks of "the reef surrounding the island of ST. MARY'S at a small distance from the sh.o.r.e." In a previous chapter I have described, from the information of Dr. Allan, the manner in which the reefs extend in N.E. lines from the headlands on this coast, thus sometimes forming rather deep channels within them, this seems caused by the action of the currents, and the reefs spring up from the submarine prolongations of the sandy headlands. The above specified portion of the coast is coloured red. The remaining S.E. portions do not appear in any published chart to possess reefs of any kind; and the Rev. W. Ellis, whose means of information regarding this side of Madagascar have been extensive, informs me he believes there are none.

EAST COAST OF AFRICA.

Proceeding from the northern part, the coast appears, for a considerable s.p.a.ce, without reefs. My information, I may here observe, is derived from the survey by Captain Owen, together with his narrative; and that by Lieutenant Boteler. At MUKDEESHA (10 deg 1' N.) there is a coral-reef extending four or five miles along the sh.o.r.e (Owen's "Narr." volume i, page 357) which in the chart lies at the distance of a quarter of a mile from the sh.o.r.e, and has within it from six to ten feet water: this then is a fringing-reef, and is coloured red. From JUBA, a little S. of the equator, to LAMOO (in 2 deg 20' S.) "the coast and islands are formed of madrepore"

(Owen's "Narrative," volume i., page 363). The chart of this part (ent.i.tled DUNDAS Islands), presents an extraordinary appearance; the coast of the mainland is quite straight and it is fronted at the average distance of two miles, by exceedingly narrow, straight islets, fringed with reefs.

Within the chain of islets, there are extensive tidal flats and muddy bays, into which many rivers enter; the depths of these s.p.a.ces varies from one to four fathoms--the latter depth not being common, and about twelve feet the average. Outside the chain of islets, the sea, at the distance of a mile, varies in depth from eight to fifteen fathoms. Lieutenant Boteler ("Narr."

volume i., page 369) describes the muddy bay of PATTA, which seems to resemble other parts of this coast, as fronted by small, narrow, level islets formed of decomposing coral, the margin of which is seldom of greater height than twelve feet, overhanging the rocky surface from which the islets rise. Knowing that the islets are formed of coral, it is, I think, scarcely possible to view the coast, and not at once conclude that we here see a fringing-reef, which has been upraised a few feet: the unusual depth of from two to four fathoms within some of these islets, is probably due to muddy rivers having prevented the growth of coral near the sh.o.r.e. There is, however, one difficulty on this view, namely, that before the elevation took place, which converted the reef into a chain of islets, the water must apparently have been still deeper; on the other hand it may be supposed that the formation of a nearly perfect barrier in front, of so large an extent of coast, would cause the currents (especially in front of the rivers), to deepen their muddy beds. When describing in the chapter on fringing-reefs, those of Mauritius, I have given my reasons for believing that the shoal s.p.a.ces within reefs of this kind, must, in many instances, have been deepened. However this may be, as several parts of this line of coast are undoubtedly fringed by living reefs, I have coloured it red.-- MALEENDA (3 deg 20' S.). In the plan of the harbour, the south headland appears fringed; and in Owen's chart on a larger scale, the reefs are seen to extend nearly thirty miles southward; coloured red.--MOMBAS (4 deg 5'

S.). The island which forms the harbour, "is surrounded by cliffs of madrepore, capable of being rendered almost impregnable" (Owen's "Narr."

volume i., page 412). The sh.o.r.e of the mainland N. and S. of the harbour, is most regularly fringed by a coral-reef at a distance from half a mile to one mile and a quarter from the land; within the reef the depth is from nine to fifteen feet; outside the reef the depth at rather less than half a mile is thirty fathoms. From the charts it appears that a s.p.a.ce about thirty-six miles in length, is here fringed; coloured red.--PEMBA (5 deg S.) is an island of coral-formation, level, and about two hundred feet in height (Owen's "Narr." volume i., page 425); it is thirty-five miles long, and is separated from the mainland by a deep sea. The outer coast is represented in the chart as regularly fringed; coloured red. The mainland in front of Pemba is likewise fringed; but there also appear to be some outlying reefs with deep water between them and the sh.o.r.e. I do not understand their structure, either from the charts or the description, therefore have not coloured them.--ZANZIBAR resembles Pemba in most respects; its southern half on the western side and the neighbouring islets are fringed; coloured red. On the mainland, a little S. of Zanzibar, there are some banks parallel to the coast, which I should have thought had been formed of coral, had it not been said (Boteler's "Narr." volume ii., page 39) that they were composed of sand; not coloured.--LATHAM'S BANK is a small island, fringed by coral-reefs; but being only ten feet high, it has not been coloured.--MONFEEA is an island of the same character as Pemba; its outer sh.o.r.e is fringed, and its southern extremity is connected with Keelwa Point on the mainland by a chain of islands fringed by reefs; coloured red. The four last-mentioned islands resemble in many respects some of the islands in the Red Sea, which will presently be described.-- KEELWA. In a plan of the sh.o.r.e, a s.p.a.ce of twenty miles N. and S. of this place is fringed by reefs, apparently of coral: these reefs are prolonged still further southward in Owen's general chart. The coast in the plans of the rivers LINDY and MONGHOW (9 deg 59' and 10 deg 7' S.) has the same structure; coloured red.--QUERIMBA Islands (from 10 deg 40' to 13 deg S.).

A chart on a large scale is given of these islands; they are low, and of coral-formation (Boteler's "Narr." volume ii., page 54); and generally have extensive reefs projecting from them which are dry at low water, and which on the outside rise abruptly from a deep sea: on their insides they are separated from the continent by a channel, or rather a succession of bays, with an average depth of ten fathoms. The small headlands on the continent also have coral-banks attached to them; and the Querimba islands and banks are placed on the lines of prolongation of these headlands, and are separated from them by very shallow channels. It is evident that whatever cause, whether the drifting of sediment or subterranean movements, produced the headlands, likewise produced, as might have been expected, submarine prolongations to them; and these towards their outer extremities, have since afforded a favourable basis for the growth of coral-reefs, and subsequently for the formation of islets. As these reefs clearly belong to the fringing cla.s.s, the Querimba islands have been coloured red.--MONABILA (13 deg 32' S.). In the plan of this harbour, the headlands outside are fringed by reefs apparently of coral; coloured red.--MOZAMBIQUE (150 deg S.) The outer part of the island on which the city is built, and the neighbouring islands, are fringed by coral-reefs; coloured red. From the description given in Owen's "Narr." (volume i., page 162), the sh.o.r.e from MOZAMBIQUE to DELAGOA BAY appears to be low and sandy; many of the shoals and islets off this line of coast are of coral-formation; but from their small size and lowness, it is not possible, from the charts, to know whether they are truly fringed. Hence this portion of coast is left uncoloured, as are likewise those parts more northward, of which no mention has been made in the foregoing pages from the want of information.

PERSIAN GULF.

From the charts lately published on a large scale by the East India Company, it appears that several parts, especially the southern sh.o.r.es of this gulf, are fringed by coral-reefs; but as the water is very shallow, and as there are numerous sandbanks, which are difficult to distinguish on the chart from reefs, I have not coloured the upper part red. Towards the mouth, however, where the water is rather deeper, the islands of ORMUZ and LARRACK, appear so regularly fringed, that I have coloured them red. There are certainly no atolls in the Persian Gulf. The sh.o.r.es of IMMAUM, and of the promontory forming the southern headland of the Persian Gulf, seem to be without reefs. The whole S.W. part (except one or two small patches) of ARABIA FELIX, and the sh.o.r.es of SOCOTRA appear from the charts and memoir of Captain Haines ("Geographical Journal," 1839, page 125) to be without any reefs. I believe there are no extensive coral-reefs on any part of the coasts of INDIA, except on the low promontory of MADURA (as already mentioned) in front of Ceylon.

RED SEA.

My information is chiefly derived from the admirable charts published by the East India Company in 1836, from personal communication with Captain Moresby, one of the surveyors, and from the excellent memoir, "Uber die Natur der Corallen-Banken des Rothen Meeres," by Ehrenberg. The plains immediately bordering the Red Sea seem chiefly to consist of a sedimentary formation of the newer tertiary period. The sh.o.r.e is, with the exception of a few parts, fringed by coral-reefs. The water is generally profoundly deep close to the sh.o.r.e; but this fact, which has attracted the attention of most voyagers, seems to have no necessary connection with the presence of reefs; for Captain Moresby particularly observed to me, that, in lat.i.tude 24 deg 10' on the eastern side, there is a piece of coast, with very deep water close to it, without any reefs, but not differing in other respects from the usual nature of the coast-line. The most remarkable feature in the Red Sea is the chain of submerged banks, reefs, and islands, lying some way from the sh.o.r.e, chiefly on the eastern side; the s.p.a.ce within being deep enough to admit a safe navigation in small vessels. The banks are generally of an oval form, and some miles in width; but some of them are very long in proportion to their width. Captain Moresby informs me that any one, who had not made actual plans of them, would be apt to think that they were much more elongated than they really are. Many of them rise to the surface, but the greater number lie from five to thirty fathoms beneath it, with irregular soundings on them. They consist of sand and living coral; coral on most of them, according to Captain Moresby, covering the greater part of their surface. They extend parallel to the sh.o.r.e, and they are not unfrequently connected in their middle parts by short transverse banks with the mainland. The sea is generally profoundly deep quite close to them, as it is near most parts of the coast of the mainland; but this is not universally the case, for between lat.i.tude 15 deg and 17 deg the water deepens quite gradually from the banks, both on the eastern and western sh.o.r.es, towards the middle of the sea. Islands in many parts arise from these banks; they are low, flat-topped, and consist of the same horizontally stratified formation with that forming the plain-like margin of the mainland. Some of the smaller and lower islands consist of mere sand. Captain Moresby informs me, that small ma.s.ses of rock, the remnants of islands, are left on many banks where there is now no dry land.

Ehrenberg also a.s.serts that most of the islets, even the lowest, have a flat abraded basis, composed of the same tertiary formation: he believes that as soon as the surf wears down the protuberant parts of a bank, just beneath the level of the sea, the surface becomes protected from further abrasion by the growth of coral, and he thus accounts for the existence of so many banks standing on a level with the surface of this sea. It appears that most of the islands are certainly decreasing in size.

The form of the banks and islands is most singular in the part just referred to, namely, from lat.i.tude 15 deg to 17 deg, where the sea deepens quite gradually: the DHALAC group, on the western coast, is surrounded by an intricate archipelago of islets and shoals; the main island is very irregularly shaped, and it includes a bay seven miles long, by four across, in which no bottom was found with 252 feet: there is only one entrance into this bay, half a mile wide, and with an island in front of it. The submerged banks on the eastern coast, within the same lat.i.tudes, round FARSAN Island, are, likewise, penetrated by many narrow creeks of deep water; one is twelve miles long, in the form of a hatchet, in which, close to its broad upper end, soundings were not struck with 360 feet, and its entrance is only half a mile wide: in another creek of the same nature, but even with a more irregular outline, there was no bottom with 480 feet.

The island of Farsan, itself, has as singular a form as any of its surrounding banks. The bottom of the sea round the Dhalac and Farsan Islands consists chiefly of sand and agglutinated fragments, but, in the deep and narrow creeks, it consists of mud; the islands themselves consist of thin, horizontally stratified, modern tertiary beds, containing but little broken coral (Ruppell, "Reise in Abyssinie," Band. i., S. 247.), their sh.o.r.es are fringed by living coral-reefs.

From the account given by Ruppell (Ibid., S. 245.) of the manner in which Dhalac has been rent by fissures, the opposite sides of which have been unequally elevated (in one instance to the amount of fifty feet), it seems probable that its irregular form, as well as probably that of Farsan, may have been partly caused by unequal elevations; but, considering the general form of the banks, and of the deep-water creeks, together with the composition of the land, I think their configuration is more probably due in great part to strong currents having drifted sediment over an uneven bottom: it is almost certain that their form cannot be attributed to the growth of coral. Whatever may have been the precise origin of the Dhalac and Farsan Archipelagoes, the greater number of the banks on the eastern side of the Red Sea seem to have originated through nearly similar means.

I judge of this from their similarity in configuration (in proof of which I may instance a bank on the east coast in lat.i.tude 22 deg; and although it is true that the northern banks generally have a less complicated outline), and from their similarity in composition, as may be observed in their upraised portions. The depth within the banks northward of lat.i.tude 17 deg, is usually greater, and their outer sides shelve more abruptly (circ.u.mstances which seem to go together) than in the Dhalac and Farsan Archipelagoes; but this might easily have been caused by a difference in the action of the currents during their formation: moreover, the greater quant.i.ty of living coral, which, according to Captain Moresby, exists on the northern banks, would tend to give them steeper margins.

From this account, brief and imperfect as it is, we can see that the great chain of banks on the eastern coast, and on the western side in the southern portion, differ greatly from true barrier-reefs wholly formed by the growth of coral. It is indeed the direct conclusion of Ehrenberg ("Uber die," etc., pages 45 and 51), that they are connected in their origin quite secondarily with the growth of coral; and he remarks that the islands off the coast of Norway, if worn down level with the sea, and merely coated with living coral, would present a nearly similar appearance.

I cannot, however, avoid suspecting, from information given me by Dr.

Malcolmson and Captain Moresby, that Ehrenberg has rather under-rated the influence of corals, in some places at least, on the formation of the tertiary deposits of the Red Sea.

THE WEST COAST OF THE RED SEA BETWEEN LAt.i.tUDE 19 DEG AND 22 DEG.

There are, in this s.p.a.ce, reefs, which, if I had known nothing of those in other parts of the Red Sea, I should unhesitatingly have considered as barrier-reefs; and, after deliberation, I have come to the same conclusion.

One of these reefs, in 20 deg 15', is twenty miles long, less than a mile in width (but expanding at the northern end into a disc), slightly sinuous, and extending parallel to the mainland at the distance of five miles from it, with very deep water within; in one spot soundings were not obtained with 205 fathoms. Some leagues further south, there is another linear reef, very narrow, ten miles long, with other small portions of reef, north and south, almost connected with it; and within this line of reefs (as well as outside) the water is profoundly deep. There are also some small linear and sickle-formed reefs, lying a little way out at sea. All these reefs are covered, as I am informed by Captain Moresby, by living corals. Here, then, we have all the characters of reefs of the barrier cla.s.s; and in some outlying reefs we have an approach to the structure of atolls. The source of my doubts about the cla.s.sification of these reefs, arises from having observed in the Dhalac and Farsan groups the narrowness and straightness of several spits of sand and rock: one of these spits in the Dhalac group is nearly fifteen miles long, only two broad, and it is bordered on each side with deep water; so that, if worn down by the surf, and coated with living corals, it would form a reef nearly similar to those within the s.p.a.ce under consideration. There is, also, in this s.p.a.ce (lat.i.tude 21 deg) a peninsula, bordered by cliffs, with its extremity worn down to the level of the sea, and its basis fringed with reefs: in the line of prolongation of this peninsula, there lies the island of MACOWA (formed, according to Captain Moresby, of the usual tertiary deposit), and some smaller islands, large parts of which likewise appear to have been worn down, and are now coated with living corals. If the removal of the strata in these several cases had been more complete, the reefs thus formed would have nearly resembled those barrier-like ones now under discussion. Notwithstanding these facts, I cannot persuade myself that the many very small, isolated, and sickle-formed reefs and others, long, nearly straight, and very narrow, with the water unfathomably deep close round them, could possibly have been formed by corals merely coating banks of sediment, or the abraded surfaces of irregularly shaped islands. I feel compelled to believe that the foundations of these reefs have subsided, and that the corals, during their upward growth, have given to these reefs their present forms: I may remark that the subsidence of narrow and irregularly-shaped peninsulas and islands, such as those existing on the coasts of the Red Sea, would afford the requisite foundations for the reefs in question.

THE WEST COAST FROM LAt.i.tUDE 22 DEG TO 24 DEG.

This part of the coast (north of the s.p.a.ce coloured blue on the map) is fronted by an irregularly shelving bank, from about ten to thirty fathoms deep; numerous little reefs, some of which have the most singular shapes, rise from this bank. It may be observed, respecting one of them, in lat.i.tude 23 deg 10', that if the promontory in lat.i.tude 24 deg were worn down to the level of the sea, and coated with corals, a very similar and grotesquely formed reef would be produced. Many of the reefs on this part of the coast may thus have originated; but there are some sickle, and almost atoll-formed reefs lying in deep water off the promontory in lat.i.tude 24 deg, which lead me to suppose that all these reefs are more probably allied to the barrier or atoll cla.s.ses. I have not, however, ventured to colour this portion of coast. ON THE WEST COAST FROM LAt.i.tUDE 19 DEG TO 17 DEG (south of s.p.a.ce coloured blue on the map), there are many low islets of very small dimensions, not much elongated, and rising out of great depths at a distance from the coast; these cannot be cla.s.sed either with atolls, or barrier- or fringing-reefs. I may here remark that the outlying reefs on the west coast, between lat.i.tude 19 deg and 24 deg, are the only ones in the Red Sea, which approach in structure to the true atolls of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, but they present only imperfect miniature likenesses of them.

EASTERN COAST.

I have felt the greatest doubt about colouring any portion of this coast, north of the fringing-reefs round the Farsan Islands in 16 deg 10'. There are many small outlying coral-reefs along the whole line of coast; but as the greater number rise from banks not very deeply submerged (the formation of which has been shown to be only secondarily connected with the growth of coral), their origin may be due simply to the growth of knolls of corals, from an irregular foundation situated within a limited depth. But between lat.i.tude 18 deg and 20 deg, there are so many linear, elliptic, and extremely small reefs, rising abruptly out of profound depths, that the same reasons, which led me to colour blue a portion of the west coast, have induced me to do the same in this part. There exist some small outlying reefs rising from deep water, north of lat.i.tude 20 deg (the northern limit coloured blue), on the east coast; but as they are not very numerous and scarcely any of them linear, I have thought it right to leave them uncoloured.

In the SOUTHERN PARTS of the Red Sea, considerable s.p.a.ces of the mainland, and of some of the Dhalac islands, are skirted by reefs, which, as I am informed by Captain Moresby, are of living coral, and have all the characters of the fringing cla.s.s. As in these lat.i.tudes, there are no outlying linear or sickle-formed reefs, rising out of unfathomable depths, I have coloured these parts of the coast red. On similar grounds, I have coloured red the NORTHERN PARTS OF THE WESTERN COAST (north of lat.i.tude 24 deg 30'), and likewise the sh.o.r.es of the chief part of the GULF OF SUEZ.

In the GULF OF ACABA, as I am informed by Captain Moresby there are no coral-reefs, and the water is profoundly deep.

WEST INDIES.

My information regarding the reefs of this area, is derived from various sources, and from an examination of numerous charts; especially of those lately executed during the survey under Captain Owen, R.N. I lay under particular obligation to Captain Bird Allen, R.N., one of the members of the late survey, for many personal communications on this subject. As in the case of the Red Sea, it is necessary to make some preliminary remarks on the submerged banks of the West Indies, which are in some degree connected with coral-reefs, and cause considerable doubts in their cla.s.sification. That large acc.u.mulations of sediment are in progress on the West Indian sh.o.r.es, will be evident to any one who examines the charts of that sea, especially of the portion north of a line joining Yucutan and Florida. The area of deposition seems less intimately connected with the debouchement of the great rivers, than with the course of the sea-currents; as is evident from the vast extension of the banks from the promontories of Yucutan and Mosquito.

Besides the coast-banks, there are many of various dimensions which stand quite isolated; these closely resemble each other, they lie from two or three to twenty or thirty fathoms under water, and are composed of sand, sometimes firmly agglutinated, with little or no coral; their surfaces are smooth and nearly level, shelving only to the amount of a few fathoms, very gradually all round towards their edges, where they plunge abruptly into the unfathomable sea. This steep inclination of their sides, which is likewise characteristic of the coast-banks, is very remarkable: I may give as an instance, the Misteriosa Bank, on the edges of which the soundings change in 250 fathoms horizontal distance, from 11 to 210 fathoms; off the northern point of the bank of Old Providence, in 200 fathoms horizontal distance, the change is from 19 to 152 fathoms; off the Great Bahama Bank, in 160 fathoms horizontal distance, the inclination is in many places from 10 fathoms to no bottom with 190 fathoms. On coasts in all parts of the world, where sediment is acc.u.mulating, something of this kind may be observed; the banks shelve very gently far out to sea, and then terminate abruptly. The form and composition of the banks standing in the middle parts of the W. Indian Sea, clearly show that their origin must be chiefly attributed to the acc.u.mulation of sediment; and the only obvious explanation of their isolated position is the presence of a nucleus, round which the currents have collected fine drift matter. Any one who will compare the character of the bank surrounding the hilly island of Old Providence, with those banks in its neighbourhood which stand isolated, will scarcely doubt that they surround submerged mountains. We are led to the same conclusion by examining the bank called Thunder Knoll, which is separated from the Great Mosquito Bank by a channel only seven miles wide, and 145 fathoms deep. There cannot be any doubt that the Mosquito Bank has been formed by the acc.u.mulation of sediment round the promontory of the same name; and Thunder Knoll resembles the Mosquito Bank, in the state of its surface submerged twenty fathoms, in the inclinations of its sides, in composition, and in every other respect. I may observe, although the remark is here irrelevant, that geologists should be cautious in concluding that all the outlyers of any formation have once been connected together, for we here see that deposits, doubtless of exactly the same nature, may be deposited with large valley-like s.p.a.ces between them.

Linear strips of coral-reefs and small knolls project from many of the isolated, as well as coast-banks; sometimes they occur quite irregularly placed, as on the Mosquito Bank, but more generally they form crescents on the windward side, situated some little distance within the outer edge of the banks:--thus on the Serranilla Bank they form an interrupted chain which ranges between two and three miles within the windward margin: generally they occur, as on Roncador, Courtown, and Anegada Banks, nearer the line of deep water. Their occurrence on the windward side is conformable to the general rule, of the efficient kinds of corals flourishing best where most exposed; but their position some way within the line of deep water I cannot explain, without it be, that a depth somewhat less than that close to the outer margin of the banks, is most favourable to their growth. Where the corals have formed a nearly continuous rim, close to the windward edge of a bank some fathoms submerged, the reef closely resembles an atoll; but if the bank surrounds an island (as in the case of Old Providence), the reef resembles an encircling barrier-reef. I should undoubtedly have cla.s.sed some of these fringed banks as imperfect atolls, or barrier-reefs, if the sedimentary nature of their foundations had not been evident from the presence of other neighbouring banks, of similar forms and of similar composition, but without the crescent-like marginal reef: in the third chapter, I observed that probably some atoll-like reefs did exist, which had originated in the manner here supposed.

Proofs of elevation within recent tertiary periods abound, as referred to in the sixth chapter, over nearly the whole area of the West Indies. Hence it is easy to understand the origin of the low land on the coasts, where sediment is now acc.u.mulating; for instance on the northern part of Yucutan, and on the N.E. part of Mosquito, where the land is low, and where extensive banks appear to be in progressive formation. Hence, also, the origin of the Great Bahama Banks, which are bordered on their western and southern edges by very narrow, long, singularly shaped islands, formed of sand, sh.e.l.ls, and coral-rock, and some of them about a hundred feet in height, is easily explained by the elevation of banks fringed on their windward (western and southern) sides by coral-reefs. On this view, however, we must suppose either that the chief part of the surfaces of the great Bahama sandbanks were all originally deeply submerged, and were brought up to their present level by the same elevatory action, which formed the linear islands; or that during the elevation of the banks, the superficial currents and swell of the waves continued wearing them down and keeping them at a nearly uniform level: the level is not quite uniform; for, in proceeding from the N.W. end of the Bahama group towards the S.E.

end, the depth of the banks increases, and the area of land decreases, in a very gradual and remarkable manner. The latter view, namely, that these banks have been worn down by the currents and swell during their elevation, seems to me the most probable one. It is, also, I believe, applicable to many banks, situated in widely distant parts of the West Indian Sea, which are wholly submerged; for, on any other view, we must suppose, that the elevatory forces have acted with astonishing uniformity.

The sh.o.r.es of the Gulf of Mexico, for the s.p.a.ce of many hundred miles, is formed by a chain of lagoons, from one to twenty miles in breadth ("Columbian Navigator," page 178, etc.), containing either fresh or salt water, and separated from the sea by linear strips of sand. Great s.p.a.ces of the sh.o.r.es of Southern Brazil (In the "London and Edinburgh Philosophical Journal," 1841, page 257, I have described a singular bar of sandstone lying parallel to the coast off Pernambuco in Brazil, which probably is an a.n.a.logous formation.), and of the United States from Long Island (as observed by Professor Rogers) to Florida have the same character. Professor Rogers, in his "Report to the British a.s.sociation"