Coral Reefs Part 2

There appears to be scarcely a feature in the structure of Keeling reef, which is not of common, if not of universal occurrence, in other atolls.

Thus Chamisso describes (Kotzebue's "First Voyage," volume iii., page 144.) a layer of coa.r.s.e conglomerate, outside the islets round the Marshall atolls which "appears on its upper surface uneven and eaten away." From drawings, with appended remarks, of Diego Garcia in the Chagos group and of several of the Maldiva atolls, shown me by Captain Moresby (see also Moresby on the Northern atolls of the Maldivas, "Geographical Journal", volume v., page 400.), it is evident that their outer coasts are subject to the same round of decay and renovation as those of Keeling atoll. From the description of the atolls in the Low Archipelago, given in Captain Beechey's "Voyage," it is not apparent that any conglomerate coral-rock was there observed.

The lagoon in Keeling atoll is shallow; in the atolls of the Low Archipelago the depth varies from 20 to 38 fathoms, and in the Marshall Group, according to Chamisso, from 30 to 35; in the Caroline atolls it is only a little less. Within the Maldiva atolls there are large s.p.a.ces with 45 fathoms, and some soundings are laid down of 49 fathoms. The greater part of the bottom in most lagoons, is formed of sediment; large s.p.a.ces have exactly the same depth, or the depth varies so insensibly, that it is evident that no other means, excepting aqueous deposition, could have leveled the surface so equally. In the Maldiva atolls this is very conspicuous, and likewise in some of the Caroline and Marshall Islands. In the former large s.p.a.ces consist of sand and SOFT CLAY; and Kotzebue speaks of clay having been found within one of the Marshall atolls. No doubt this clay is calcareous mud, similar to that at Keeling Island, and to that at Bermuda already referred to, as undistinguishable from disintegrated chalk, and which Lieutenant Nelson says is called there pipe-clay. (I may here observe that on the coast of Brazil, where there is much coral, the soundings near the land are described by Admiral Roussin, in the "Pilote du Bresil", as siliceous sand, mingled with much finely comminuted particles of sh.e.l.ls and coral. Further in the offing, for a s.p.a.ce of 1,300 miles along the coast, from the Abrolhos Islands to Maranham, the bottom in many places is composed of "tuf blanc, mele ou forme de madrepores broyes."

This white substance, probably, is a.n.a.logous to that which occurs within the above-mentioned lagoons; it is sometimes, according to Roussin, firm, and he compares it to mortar.)

Where the waves act with unequal force on the two sides of an atoll, the islets appear to be first formed, and are generally of greater continuity on the more exposed sh.o.r.e. The islets, also, which are placed to leeward, are in most parts of the Pacific liable to be occasionally swept entirely away by gales, equalling hurricanes in violence, which blow in an opposite direction to the ordinary trade-wind. The absence of the islets on the leeward side of atolls, or when present their lesser dimensions compared with those to windward, is a comparatively unimportant fact; but in several instances the reef itself on the leeward side, retaining its usual defined outline, does not rise to the surface by several fathoms. This is the case with the southern side of Peros Banhos (Plate I., Figure 9) in the Chagos group, with Mourileu atoll (Frederick Lutke's "Voyage autour du Monde,"

volume ii., page 291. See also his account of Namonouito, below, and the chart of Oulleay in the Atlas.) in the Caroline Archipelago, and with the barrier-reef (Plate I., Figure 8) of the Gambier Islands. I allude to the latter reef, although belonging to another cla.s.s, because Captain Beechey was first led by it to observe the peculiarity in the question. At Peros Banhos the submerged part is nine miles in length, and lies at an average depth of about five fathoms; its surface is nearly level, and consists of hard stone, with a thin covering of loose sand. There is scarcely any living coral on it, even on the outer margin, as I have been particularly a.s.sured by Captain Moresby; it is, in fact, a wall of dead coral-rock, having the same width and transverse section with the reef in its ordinary state, of which it is a continuous portion. The living and perfect parts terminate abruptly, and abut on the submerged portions, in the same manner as on the sides of an ordinary pa.s.sage through the reef. The reef to leeward in other cases is nearly or quite obliterated, and one side of the lagoon is left open; for instance, at Oulleay (Caroline Archipelago), where a crescent-formed reef is fronted by an irregular bank, on which the other half of the annular reef probably once stood. At Namonouito, in the same Archipelago, both these modifications of the reef concur; it consists of a great flat bank, with from twenty to twenty-five fathoms water on it; for a length of more than forty miles on its southern side it is open and without any reef, whilst on the other sides it is bounded by a reef, in parts rising to the surface and perfectly characterised, in parts lying some fathoms submerged. In the Chagos group there are annular reefs, entirely submerged, which have the same structure as the submerged and defined portions just described. The Speaker's Bank offers an excellent example of this structure; its central expanse, which is about twenty-two fathoms deep, is twenty-four miles across; the external rim is of the usual width of annular reefs, and is well-defined; it lies between six and eight fathoms beneath the surface, and at the same depth there are scattered knolls in the lagoon. Captain Moresby believes the rim consists of dead rock, thinly covered with sand, and he is certain this is the case with the external rim of the Great Chagos Bank, which is also essentially a submerged atoll. In both these cases, as in the submerged portion of the reef at Peros Banhos, Captain Moresby feels sure that the quant.i.ty of living coral, even on the outer edge overhanging the deep-sea water, is quite insignificant. Lastly, in several parts of the Pacific and Indian Oceans there are banks, lying at greater depths than in the cases just mentioned, of the same form and size with the neighbouring atolls, but with their atoll-like structure wholly obliterated. It appears from the survey of Freycinet, that there are banks of this kind in the Caroline Archipelago, and, as is reported, in the Low Archipelago. When we discuss the origin of the different cla.s.ses of coral formations, we shall see that the submerged state of the whole of some atoll-formed reefs, and of portions of others, generally but not invariably on the leeward side, and the existence of more deeply submerged banks now possessing little or no signs of their original atoll-like structure, are probably the effects of a uniform cause,--namely, the death of the coral, during the subsidence of the area, in which the atolls or banks are situated.

There is seldom, with the exception of the Maldiva atolls, more than two or three channels, and generally only one leading into the lagoon, of sufficient depth for a ship to enter. in small atolls, there is usually not even one. Where there is deep water, for instance above twenty fathoms, in the middle of the lagoon, the channels through the reef are seldom as deep as the centre,--it may be said that the rim only of the saucer-shaped hollow forming the lagoon is notched. Mr. Lyell ("Principles of Geology," volume iii., page 289.) has observed that the growth of the coral would tend to obstruct all the channels through a reef, except those kept open by discharging the water, which during high tide and the greater part of each ebb is thrown over its circ.u.mference. Several facts indicate that a considerable quant.i.ty of sediment is likewise discharged through these channels; and Captain Moresby informs me that he has observed, during the change of the monsoon, the sea discoloured to a distance off the entrances into the Maldiva and Chagos atolls. This, probably, would check the growth of the coral in them, far more effectually than a mere current of water. In the many small atolls without any channel, these causes have not prevented the entire ring attaining the surface. The channels, like the submerged and effaced parts of the reef, very generally though not invariably occur on the leeward side of the atoll, or on that side, according to Beechey (Beechey's "Voyage," 4to edition, volume i., page 189.), which, from running in the same direction with the prevalent wind, is not fully exposed to it. Pa.s.sages between the islets on the reef, through which boats can pa.s.s at high water, must not be confounded with ship-channels, by which the annular reef itself is breached. The pa.s.sages between the islets occur, of course, on the windward as well as on the leeward side; but they are more frequent and broader to leeward, owing to the lesser dimensions of the islets on that side.

At Keeling atoll the sh.o.r.es of the lagoon shelve gradually, where the bottom is of sediment, and irregularly or abruptly where there are coral-reefs; but this is by no means the universal structure in other atolls.

Chamisso (Kotzebue's "First Voyage," volume iii., page 142.), speaking in general terms of the lagoons in the Marshall atolls, says the lead generally sinks "from a depth of two or three fathoms to twenty or twenty-four, and you may pursue a line in which on one side of the boat you may see the bottom, and on the other the azure-blue deep water." The sh.o.r.es of the lagoon-like channel within the barrier-reef at Vanikoro have a similar structure. Captain Beechey has described a modification of this structure (and he believes it is not uncommon) in two atolls in the Low Archipelago, in which the sh.o.r.es of the lagoon descend by a few, broad, slightly inclined ledges or steps: thus at Matilda atoll (Beechey's "Voyage," 4to edition, volume i, page 160. At Whitsunday Island the bottom of the lagoon slopes gradually towards the centre, and then deepens suddenly, the edge of the bank being nearly perpendicular. This bank is formed of coral and dead sh.e.l.ls.), the great exterior reef, the surface of which is gently inclined towards and beneath the surface of the lagoon, ends abruptly in a little cliff three fathoms deep; at its foot, a ledge forty yards wide extends, shelving gently inwards like the surface-reef, and terminated by a second little cliff five fathoms deep; beyond this, the bottom of the lagoon slopes to twenty fathoms, which is the average depth of its centre. These ledges seem to be formed of coral-rock; and Captain Beechey says that the lead often descended several fathoms through holes in them. In some atolls, all the coral reefs or knolls in the lagoon come to the surface at low water; in other cases of rarer occurrence, all lie at nearly the same depth beneath it, but most frequently they are quite irregular,--some with perpendicular, some with sloping sides,--some rising to the surface, and others lying at all intermediate depths from the bottom upwards. I cannot, therefore, suppose that the union of such reefs could produce even one uniformly sloping ledge, and much less two or three, one beneath the other, and each terminated by an abrupt wall. At Matilda Island, which offers the best example of the step-like structure, Captain Beechey observes that the coral-knolls within the lagoon are quite irregular in their height. We shall hereafter see that the theory which accounts for the ordinary form of atolls, apparently includes this occasional peculiarity in their structure.

In the midst of a group of atolls, there sometimes occur small, flat, very low islands of coral formation, which probably once included a lagoon, since filled up with sediment and coral-reefs. Captain Beechey entertains no doubt that this has been the case with the two small islands, which alone of thirty-one surveyed by him in the Low Archipelago, did not contain lagoons. Romanzoff Island (in lat. 15 deg S.) is described by Chamisso (Kotzebue's "First Voyage," volume iii., page 221.) as formed by a dam of madreporitic rock inclosing a flat s.p.a.ce, thinly covered with trees, into which the sea on the leeward side occasionally breaks. North Keeling atoll appears to be in a rather less forward stage of conversion into land; it consists of a horse-shoe shaped strip of land surrounding a muddy flat, one mile in its longest axis, which is covered by the sea only at high water.

When describing South Keeling atoll, I endeavoured to show how slow the final process of filling up a lagoon must be; nevertheless, as all causes do tend to produce this effect, it is very remarkable that not one instance, as I believe, is known of a moderately sized lagoon being filled up even to the low water-line at spring-tides, much less of such a one being converted into land. It is, likewise, in some degree remarkable, how few atolls, except small ones, are surrounded by a single linear strip of land, formed by the union of separate islets. We cannot suppose that the many atolls in the Pacific and Indian Oceans all have had a late origin, and yet should they remain at their present level, subjected only to the action of the sea and to the growing powers of the coral, during as many centuries as must have elapsed since any of the earlier tertiary epochs, it cannot, I think, be doubted that their lagoons and the islets on their reef, would present a totally different appearance from what they now do.

This consideration leads to the suspicion that some renovating agency (namely subsidence) comes into play at intervals, and perpetuates their original structure.

(DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.

PLATE II.--GREAT CHAGOS BANK, NEW CALEDONIA,MENCHIKOFF ATOLL, ETC.

FIGURE 1.--GREAT CHAGOS BANK, in the Indian Ocean; taken from the survey by Captain Moresby and Lieutenant Powell; the parts which are shaded, with the exception of two or three islets on the western and northern sides, do not rise to the surface, but are submerged from four to ten fathoms; the banks bounded by the dotted lines lie from fifteen to twenty fathoms beneath the surface, and are formed of sand; the central s.p.a.ce is of mud, and from thirty to fifty fathoms deep.

FIGURE 2.--A vertical section, on the same scale, in an eastern and western line across the Great Chagos Bank, given for the sake of exhibiting more clearly its structure.

FIGURE 3.--MENCHIKOFF ATOLL (or lagoon-island), in the Marshall Archipelago, Northern Pacific Ocean; from Krusenstern's "Atlas of the Pacific;" originally surveyed by Captain Hagemeister; the depth within the lagoons is unknown.

FIGURE 4.--MAHLOS MAHDOO ATOLL, together with Horsburgh atoll, in the Maldiva Archipelago; from the survey by Captain Moresby and Lieutenant Powell; the white s.p.a.ces in the middle of the separate small reefs, both on the margin and in the middle part, are meant to represent little lagoons; but it was found not possible to distinguish them clearly from the small islets, which have been formed on these same small reefs; many of the smaller reefs could not be introduced; the nautical mark (dot over a dash) over the figures 250 and 200, between Mahlos Mahdoo and Horsburgh atoll and Powell's island, signifies that soundings were not obtained at these depths.

FIGURE 5.--NEW CALEDONIA, in the western part of the Pacific; from Krusenstern's "Atlas," compiled from several surveys; I have slightly altered the northern point of the reef, in accordance with the "Atlas of the Voyage of the 'Astrolabe'." In Krusenstern's "Atlas," the reef is represented by a single line with crosses; I have for the sake of uniformity added an interior line.

FIGURE 6.--MALDIVA ARCHIPELAGO, in the Indian Ocean; from the survey by Captain Moresby and Lieutenant Powell.)

SECTION 1.III.--ATOLLS OF THE MALDIVA ARCHIPELAGO--GREAT CHAGOS BANK.

Maldiva Archipelago.--Ring-formed reefs, marginal and central.--Great depths in the lagoons of the southern atolls.--Reefs in the lagoons all rising to the surface.--Position of islets and breaches in the reefs, with respect to the prevalent winds and action of the waves.--Destruction of islets.--Connection in the position and submarine foundation of distinct atolls.--The apparent disseverment of large atolls.--The Great Chagos Bank.--Its submerged condition and extraordinary structure.

Although occasional references have been made to the Maldiva atolls, and to the banks in the Chagos group, some points of their structure deserve further consideration. My description is derived from an examination of the admirable charts lately published from the survey of Captain Moresby and Lieutenant Powell, and more especially from information which Captain Moresby has communicated to me in the kindest manner.

The Maldiva Archipelago is 470 miles in length, with an average breadth of about 50 miles. The form and dimensions of the atolls, and their singular position in a double line, may be seen, but not well, in the greatly reduced chart (Figure 6) in Plate II. The dimensions of the longest atoll in the group (called by the double name of Milla-dou-Madou and Tilla-dou-Matte) have already been given; it is 88 miles in a medial and slightly curved line, and is less than 20 miles in its broadest part.

Suadiva, also, is a n.o.ble atoll, being 44 miles across in one direction, and 34 in another, and the great included expanse of water has a depth of between 250 and 300 feet. The smaller atolls in this group differ in no respect from ordinary ones; but the larger ones are remarkable from being breached by numerous deep-water channels leading into the lagoon; for instance, there are 42 channels, through which a ship could enter the lagoon of Suadiva.

In the three southern large atolls, the separate portions of reef between these channels have the ordinary structure, and are linear; but in the other atolls, especially the more northern ones, these portions are ring- formed, like miniature atolls. Other ring-formed reefs rise out of the lagoons, in the place of those irregular ones which ordinarily occur there.

In the reduction of the chart of Mahlos Mahdoo (Plate II., Figure 4), it was not found easy to define the islets and the little lagoons within each reef, so that the ring-formed structure is very imperfectly shown; in the large published charts of Tilla-dou-Matte, the appearance of these rings, from standing further apart from each other, is very remarkable. The rings on the margin are generally elongated; many of them are three, and some even five miles, in diameter; those within the lagoon are usually smaller, few being more than two miles across, and the greater number rather less than one. The depth of the little lagoon within these small annular reefs is generally from five to seven fathoms, but occasionally more; and in Ari atoll many of the central ones are twelve, and some even more than twelve fathoms deep. These rings rise abruptly from the platform or bank, on which they are placed; their outer margin is invariably bordered by living coral (Captain Moresby informs me that Millepora complanata is one of the commonest kinds on the outer margin, as it is at Keeling atoll.) within which there is a flat surface of coral rock; of this flat, sand and fragments have in many cases acc.u.mulated and been converted into islets, clothed with vegetation. I can, in fact, point out no essential difference between these little ring-formed reefs (which, however, are larger, and contain deeper lagoons than many true atolls that stand in the open sea), and the most perfectly characterised atolls, excepting that the ring-formed reefs are based on a shallow foundation, instead of on the floor of the open sea, and that instead of being scattered irregularly, they are grouped closely together on one large platform, with the marginal rings arranged in a rudely formed circle.

The perfect series which can be traced from portions of simple linear reef, to others including long linear lagoons, and from these again to oval or almost circular rings, renders it probable that the latter are merely modifications of the linear or normal state. It is conformable with this view, that the ring-formed reefs on the margin, even where most perfect and standing furthest apart, generally have their longest axes directed in the line which the reef would have held, if the atoll had been bounded by an ordinary wall. We may also infer that the central ring-formed reefs are modifications of those irregular ones, which are found in the lagoons of all common atolls. It appears from the charts on a large scale, that the ring-like structure is contingent on the marginal channels or breaches being wide; and, consequently, on the whole interior of the atoll being freely exposed to the waters of the open sea. When the channels are narrow or few in number, although the lagoon be of great size and depth (as in Suadiva), there are no ring-formed reefs; where the channels are somewhat broader, the marginal portions of reef, and especially those close to the larger channels, are ring-formed, but the central ones are not so; where they are broadest, almost every reef throughout the atoll is more or less perfectly ring-formed. Although their presence is thus contingent on the openness of the marginal channels, the theory of their formation, as we shall hereafter see, is included in that of the parent atolls, of which they form the separate portions.

The lagoons of all the atolls in the southern part of the Archipelago are from ten to twenty fathoms deeper than those in the northern part. This is well exemplified in the case of Addoo, the southernmost atoll in the group, for although only nine miles in its longest diameter, it has a depth of thirty-nine fathoms, whereas all the other small atolls have comparatively shallow lagoons; I can a.s.sign no adequate cause for this difference in depth. In the central and deepest part of the lagoons, the bottom consists, as I am informed by Captain Moresby, of stiff clay (probably a calcareous mud); nearer the border it consists of sand, and in the channels through the reef, of hard sand-banks, sandstone, conglomerate rubble, and a little live coral. Close outside the reef and the line joining its detached portions (where intersected by many channels), the bottom is sandy, and it slopes abruptly into unfathomable depths. In most lagoons the depth is considerably greater in the centre than in the channels; but in Tilla-dou-Matte, where the marginal ring-formed reefs stand far apart, the same depth is carried across the entire atoll, from the deep-water line on one side to that on the other. I cannot refrain from once again remarking on the singularity of these atolls,--a great sandy and generally concave disc rises abruptly from the unfathomable ocean, with its central expanse studded and its border symmetrically fringed with oval basins of coral-rock, just lipping the surface of the sea, sometimes clothed with vegetation, and each containing a little lake of clear water!

In the southern Maldiva atolls, of which there are nine large ones, all the small reefs within the lagoons come to the surface, and are dry at low water spring-tides; hence in navigating them, there is no danger from submarine banks. This circ.u.mstance is very remarkable, as within some atolls, for instance those of the neighbouring Chagos group, not a single reef comes to the surface, and in most other cases a few only do, and the rest lie at all intermediate depths from the bottom upwards. When treating of the growth of coral I shall again refer to this subject.

Although in the neighbourhood of the Maldiva Archipelago the winds, during the monsoons, blow during nearly an equal time from opposite quarters, and although, as I am informed by Captain Moresby, the westerly winds are the strongest, yet the islets are almost all placed on the eastern side of the northern atolls, and on the south-eastern side of the southern atolls.

That the formation of the islets is due to detritus thrown up from the outside, as in the ordinary manner, and not from the interior of the lagoons, may, I think be safely inferred from several considerations, which it is hardly worth while to detail. As the easterly winds are not the strongest, their action probably is aided by some prevailing swell or current.

In groups of atolls, exposed to a trade-wind, the ship-channels into the lagoons are almost invariably situated on the leeward or less exposed side of the reef, and the reef itself is sometimes either wanting there, or is submerged. A strictly a.n.a.logous, but different fact, may be observed at the Maldiva atolls--namely, that where two atolls stand in front of each other, the breaches in the reef are the most numerous on their near, and therefore less exposed, sides. Thus on the near sides of Ari and the two Nillandoo atolls, which face S. Male, Phaleedoo, and Moloque atolls, there are seventy-three deep-water channels, and only twenty-five on their outer sides; on the near side of the three latter named atolls there are fifty- six openings, and only thirty-seven on their outsides. It is scarcely possible to attribute this difference to any other cause than the somewhat different action of the sea on the two sides, which would ensue from the protection afforded by the two rows of atolls to each other. I may here remark that in most cases, the conditions favourable to the greater acc.u.mulation of fragments on the reef and to its more perfect continuity on one side of the atoll than on the other, have concurred, but this has not been the case with the Maldivas; for we have seen that the islets are placed on the eastern or south-eastern sides, whilst the breaches in the reef occur indifferently on any side, where protected by an opposite atoll.

The reef being more continuous on the outer and more exposed sides of those atolls which stand near each other, accords with the fact, that the reef of the southern atolls is more continuous than that of the northern ones; for the former, as I am informed by Captain Moresby, are more constantly exposed than the northern atolls to a heavy surf.

The date of the first formation of some of the islets in this Archipelago is known to the inhabitants; on the other hand, several islets, and even some of those which are believed to be very old, are now fast wearing away.

The work of destruction has, in some instances, been completed in ten years. Captain Moresby found on one water-washed reef the marks of wells and graves, which were excavated when it supported an islet. In South Nillandoo atoll, the natives say that three of the islets were formerly larger: in North Nillandoo there is one now being washed away; and in this latter atoll Lieutenant Prentice found a reef, about six hundred yards in diameter, which the natives positively affirmed was lately an island covered with cocoa-nut trees. It is now only partially dry at low water spring-tides, and is (in Lieutenant Prentice's words) "entirely covered with live coral and madrepore." In the northern part, also, of the Maldiva Archipelago and in the Chagos group, it is known that some of the islets are disappearing. The natives attribute these effects to variations in the currents of the sea. For my own part I cannot avoid suspecting that there must be some further cause, which gives rise to such a cycle of change in the action of the currents of the great and open ocean.

Several of the atolls in this Archipelago are so related to each other in form and position, that at the first glance one is led to suspect that they have originated in the disseverment of a single one. Male consists of three perfectly characterised atolls, of which the shape and relative position are such, that a line drawn closely round all three, gives a symmetrical figure; to see this clearly, a larger chart is required than that of the Archipelago in Plate II.; the channel separating the two northern Male atolls is only little more than a mile wide, and no bottom was found in it with 100 fathoms. Powell's Island is situated at the distance of two miles and a half off the northern end of Mahlos Mahdoo (see Figure 4, Plate II.), at the exact point where the two sides of the latter, if prolonged, would meet; no bottom, however, was found in the channel with 200 fathoms; in the wider channel between Horsburgh atoll and the southern end of Mahlos Mahdoo, no bottom was found with 250 fathoms. In these and similar cases, the relation consists only in the form and position of the atolls. But in the channel between the two Nillandoo atolls, although three miles and a quarter wide, soundings were struck at the depth of 200 fathoms; the channel between Ross and Ari atolls is four miles wide, and only 150 fathoms deep. Here then we have, besides the relation of form, a submarine connection. The fact of soundings having been obtained between two separate and perfectly characterised atolls is in itself interesting, as it has never, I believe, been effected in any of the many other groups of atolls in the Pacific and Indian seas. In continuing to trace the connection of adjoining atolls, if a hasty glance be taken at the chart (Figure 4., Plate II.) of Mahlos Mahdoo, and the line of unfathomable water be followed, no one will hesitate to consider it as one atoll. But a second look will show that it is divided by a bifurcating channel, of which the northern arm is about one mile and three-quarters in width, with an average depth of 125 fathoms, and the southern one three-quarters of a mile wide, and rather less deep. These channels resemble in the slope of their sides and general form, those which separate atolls in every respect distinct; and the northern arm is wider than that dividing two of the Male atolls. The ring-formed reefs on the sides of this bifurcating channel are elongated, so that the northern and southern portions of Mahlos Mahdoo may claim, as far as their external outline is concerned, to be considered as distinct and perfect atolls. But the intermediate portion, lying in the fork of the channel, is bordered by reefs less perfect than those which surround any other atoll in the group of equally small dimensions. Mahlos Mahdoo, therefore, is in every respect in so intermediate a condition, that it may be considered either as a single atoll nearly dissevered into three portions, or as three atolls almost perfect and intimately connected. This is an instance of a very early stage of the apparent disseverment of an atoll, but a still earlier one in many respects is exhibited at Tilla-dou- Matte. In one part of this atoll, the ring-formed reefs stand so far apart from each other, that the inhabitants have given different names to the northern and southern halves; nearly all the rings, moreover, are so perfect and stand so separate, and the s.p.a.ce from which they rise is so level and unlike a true lagoon, that we can easily imagine the conversion of this one great atoll, not into two or three portions, but into a whole group of miniature atolls. A perfect series such as we have here traced, impresses the mind with an idea of actual change; and it will hereafter be seen, that the theory of subsidence, with the upward growth of the coral, modified by accidents of probable occurrence, will account for the occasional disseverment of large atolls.

The Great Chagos bank alone remains to be described. In the Chagos group there are some ordinary atolls, some annular reefs rising to the surface but without any islets on them, and some atoll-formed banks, either quite submerged, or nearly so. Of the latter, the Great Chagos Bank is much the largest, and differs in its structure from the others: a plan of it is given in Plate II., Figure 1, in which, for the sake of clearness, I have had the parts under ten fathoms deep finely shaded: an east and west vertical section is given in Figure 2, in which the vertical scale has been necessarily exaggerated. Its longest axis is ninety nautical miles, and another line drawn at right angles to the first, across the broadest part, is seventy. The central part consists of a level muddy flat, between forty and fifty fathoms deep, which is surrounded on all sides, with the exception of some breaches, by the steep edges of a set of banks, rudely arranged in a circle. These banks consist of sand, with a very little live coral; they vary in breadth from five to twelve miles, and on an average lie about sixteen fathoms beneath the surface; they are bordered by the steep edges of a third narrow and upper bank, which forms the rim to the whole. This rim is about a mile in width, and with the exception of two or three spots where islets have been formed, is submerged between five and ten fathoms. It consists of smooth hard rock, covered with a thin layer of sand, but with scarcely any live coral; it is steep on both sides, and outwards slopes abruptly into unfathomable depths. At the distance of less than half a mile from one part, no bottom was found with 190 fathoms; and off another point, at a somewhat greater distance, there was none with 210 fathoms. Small steep-sided banks or knolls, covered with luxuriantly growing coral, rise from the interior expanse to the same level with the external rim, which, as we have seen, is formed only of dead rock. It is impossible to look at the plan (Figure 1, Plate II.), although reduced to so small a scale, without at once perceiving that the Great Chagos Bank is, in the words of Captain Moresby (This officer has had the kindness to lend me an excellent MS. account of the Chagos Islands; from this paper, from the published charts, and from verbal information communicated to me by Captain Moresby, the above account of the Great Chagos Bank is taken.), "nothing more than a half-drowned atoll." But of what great dimensions, and of how extraordinary an internal structure? We shall hereafter have to consider both the cause of its submerged condition, a state common to other banks in the group, and the origin of the singular submarine terraces, which bound the central expanse: these, I think, it can be shown, have resulted from a cause a.n.a.logous to that which has produced the bifurcating channel across Mahlos Mahdoo.

CHAPTER II.--BARRIER REEFS.

Closely resemble in general form and structure atoll-reefs.--Width and depth of the lagoon-channels.--Breaches through the reef in front of valleys, and generally on the leeward side.--Checks to the filling up of the lagoon-channels.--Size and const.i.tution of the encircled islands.-- Number of islands within the same reef.--Barrier-reefs of New Caledonia and Australia.--Position of the reef relative to the slope of the adjoining land.--Probable great thickness of barrier-reefs.

The term "barrier" has been generally applied to that vast reef which fronts the N.E. sh.o.r.e of Australia, and by most voyagers likewise to that on the western coast of New Caledonia. At one time I thought it convenient thus to restrict the term, but as these reefs are similar in structure, and in position relatively to the land, to those, which, like a wall with a deep moat within, encircle many smaller islands, I have cla.s.sed them together. The reef, also, on the west coast of New Caledonia, circling round the extremities of the island, is an intermediate form between a small encircling reef and the Australian barrier, which stretches for a thousand miles in nearly a straight line.

The geographer Balbi has in effect described those barrier-reefs, which encircle moderately sized islands, by calling them atolls with high land rising from within their central expanse. The general resemblance between the reefs of the barrier and atoll cla.s.ses may be seen in the small, but accurately reduced charts on Plate I. (The authorities from which these charts have been reduced, together with some remarks on them and descriptive of the Plates, are given separately.), and this resemblance can be further shown to extend to every part of the structure. Beginning with the outside of the reef; many scattered soundings off Gambier, Oualan, and some other encircled islands, show that close to the breakers there exists a narrow shelving margin, beyond which the ocean becomes suddenly unfathomable; but off the west coast of New Caledonia, Captain Kent (Dalrymple, "Hydrog. Mem." volume iii.) found no bottom with 150 fathoms, at two ships' length from the reef; so that the slope here must be nearly as precipitous as off the Maldiva atolls.

I can give little information regarding the kinds of corals which live on the outer margin. When I visited the reef at Tahiti, although it was low water, the surf was too violent for me to see the living ma.s.ses; but, according to what I heard from some intelligent native chiefs, they resemble in their rounded and branchless forms, those on the margin of Keeling atoll. The extreme verge of the reef, which was visible between the breaking waves at low water, consisted of a rounded, convex, artificial-like breakwater, entirely coated with Nulliporae, and absolutely similar to that which I have described at Keeling atoll. From what I heard when at Tahiti, and from the writings of the Revs. W. Ellis and J.

Williams, I conclude that this peculiar structure is common to most of the encircled islands of the Society Archipelago. The reef within this mound or breakwater, has an extremely irregular surface, even more so than between the islets on the reef of Keeling atoll, with which alone (as there are no islets on the reef of Tahiti) it can properly be compared. At Tahiti, the reef is very irregular in width; but round many other encircled islands, for instance, Vanikoro or Gambier Islands (Figures 1 and 8, Plate I.), it is quite as regular, and of the same average width, as in true atolls. Most barrier-reefs on the inner side slope irregularly into the lagoon-channel (as the s.p.a.ce of deep water separating the reef from the included land may be called), but at Vanikoro the reef slopes only for a short distance, and then terminates abruptly in a submarine wall, forty feet high,--a structure absolutely similar to that described by Chamisso in the Marshall atolls.

In the Society Archipelago, Ellis (Consult, on this and other points, the "Polynesian Researches," by the Rev. W. Ellis, an admirable work, full of curious information.) states, that the reefs generally lie at the distance of from one to one and a half miles, and, occasionally, even at more than three miles, from the sh.o.r.e. The central mountains are generally bordered by a fringe of flat, and often marshy, alluvial land, from one to four miles in width. This fringe consists of coral-sand and detritus thrown up from the lagoon-channel, and of soil washed down from the hills; it is an encroachment on the channel, a.n.a.logous to that low and inner part of the islets in many atolls which is formed by the acc.u.mulation of matter from the lagoon. At Hogoleu (Figure 2, Plate I.), in the Caroline Archipelago (See "Hydrographical Mem." and the "Atlas of the Voyage of the 'Astrolabe'," by Captain Dumont D'Urville, page 428.), the reef on the south side is no less than twenty miles; on the east side, five; and on the north side, fourteen miles from the encircled high islands.

The lagoon channels may be compared in every respect with true lagoons. In some cases they are open, with a level bottom of fine sand; in others they are choked up with reefs of delicately branched corals, which have the same general character as those within the Keeling atoll. These internal reefs either stand separately, or more commonly skirt the sh.o.r.es of the included high islands. The depth of the lagoon-channel round the Society Islands varies from two or three to thirty fathoms; in Cook's (See the chart in volume i. of Hawkesworth's 4to edition of "Cook's First Voyage.") chart of Ulieta, however, there is one sounding laid down of forty-eight fathoms; at Vanikoro there are several of fifty-four and one of fifty-six and a half fathoms (English), a depth which even exceeds by a little that of the interior of the great Maldiva atolls. Some barrier-reefs have very few islets on them; whilst others are surmounted by numerous ones; and those round part of Bolabola (Plate I., Figure 5) form a single linear strip.

The islets first appear either on the angles of the reef, or on the sides of the breaches through it, and are generally most numerous on the windward side. The reef to leeward retaining its usual width, sometimes lies submerged several fathoms beneath the surface; I have already mentioned Gambier Island as an instance of this structure. Submerged reefs, having a less defined outline, dead, and covered with sand, have been observed (see Appendix) off some parts of Huaheine and Tahiti. The reef is more frequently breached to leeward than to windward; thus I find in Krusenstern's "Memoir on the Pacific," that there are pa.s.sages through the encircling reef on the leeward side of each of the seven Society Islands, which possess ship-harbours; but that there are openings to windward through the reef of only three of them. The breaches in the reef are seldom as deep as the interior lagoon-like channel; they generally occur in front of the main valleys, a circ.u.mstance which can be accounted for, as will be seen in the fourth chapter, without much difficulty. The breaches being situated in front of the valleys, which descend indifferently on all sides, explains their more frequent occurrence through the windward side of barrier-reefs than through the windward side of atolls,--for in atolls there is no included land to influence the position of the breaches.

It is remarkable, that the lagoon-channels round mountainous islands have not in every instance been long ago filled up with coral and sediment; but it is more easily accounted for than appears at first sight. In cases like that of Hogoleu and the Gambier Islands, where a few small peaks rise out of a great lagoon, the conditions scarcely differ from those of an atoll, and I have already shown, at some length, that the filling up of a true lagoon must be an extremely slow process. Where the channel is narrow, the agency, which on unprotected coasts is most productive of sediment, namely the force of the breakers, is here entirely excluded, and the reef being breached in the front of the main valleys, much of the finer mud from the rivers must be transported into the open sea. As a current is formed by the water thrown over the edge of atoll-formed reefs, which carries sediment with it through the deep-water breaches, the same thing probably takes place in barrier-reefs, and this would greatly aid in preventing the lagoon-channel from being filled up. The low alluvial border, however, at the foot of the encircled mountains, shows that the work of filling up is in progress; and at Maura (Plate I., Figure 6), in the Society group, it has been almost effected, so that there remains only one harbour for small craft.

If we look at a set of charts of barrier-reefs, and leave out in imagination the encircled land, we shall find that, besides the many points already noticed of resemblance, or rather of ident.i.ty in structure with atolls, there is a close general agreement in form, average dimensions, and grouping. Encircling barrier-reefs, like atolls, are generally elongated, with an irregularly rounded, though sometimes angular outline. There are atolls of all sizes, from less than two miles in diameter to sixty miles (excluding Tilla-dou-Matte, as it consists of a number of almost independent atoll-formed reefs); and there are encircling barrier-reefs from three miles and a half to forty-six miles in diameter,--Turtle Island being an instance of the former, and Hogoleu of the latter. At Tahiti the encircled island is thirty-six miles in its longest axis, whilst at Maurua it is only a little more than two miles. It will be shown, in the last chapter in this volume, that there is the strictest resemblance in the grouping of atolls and of common islands, and consequently there must be the same resemblance in the grouping of atolls and of encircling barrier-reefs.

The islands lying within reefs of this cla.s.s, are of very various heights.

Tahiti is 7,000 feet (The height of Tahiti is given from Captain Beechey; Maurua from Mr. F.D. Bennett ("Geograph. Journ." volume viii., page 220); Aitutaki from measurements made on board the "Beagle"; and Manouai or Harvey Island, from an estimate by the Rev. J. Williams. The two latter islands, however, are not in some respects well characterised examples of the encircled cla.s.s.); Maurua about 800; Aitutaki 360, and Manouai only 50.

The geological nature of the included land varies: in most cases it is of ancient volcanic origin, owing apparently to the fact that islands of this nature are most frequent within all great seas; some, however, are of madreporitic limestone, and others of primary formation, of which latter kind New Caledonia offers the best example. The central land consists either of one island, or of several: thus, in the Society group, Eimeo stands by itself; while Taha and Raiatea (Figure 3, Plate I.), both moderately large islands of nearly equal size, are included in one reef.

Within the reef of the Gambier group there are four large and some smaller islands (Figure 8, Plate I.); within that of Hogoleu (Figure 2, Plate I.) nearly a dozen small islands are scattered over the expanse of one vast lagoon.

After the details now given, it may be a.s.serted that there is not one point of essential difference between encircling barrier-reefs and atolls: the latter enclose a simple sheet of water, the former encircle an expanse with one or more islands rising from it. I was much struck with this fact, when viewing, from the heights of Tahiti, the distant island of Eimeo standing within smooth water, and encircled by a ring of snow-white breakers.

Remove the central land, and an annular reef like that of an atoll in an early stage of its formation is left; remove it from Bolabola, and there remains a circle of linear coral-islets, crowned with tall cocoa-nut trees, like one of the many atolls scattered over the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

The barrier-reefs of Australia and of New Caledonia deserve a separate notice from their great dimensions. The reef on the west coast of New Caledonia (Figure 5, Plate II.) is 400 miles in length; and for a length of many leagues it seldom approaches within eight miles of the sh.o.r.e; and near the southern end of the island, the s.p.a.ce between the reef and the land is sixteen miles in width. The Australian barrier extends, with a few interruptions, for nearly a thousand miles; its average distance from the land is between twenty and thirty miles; and in some parts from fifty to seventy. The great arm of the sea thus included, is from ten to twenty-five fathoms deep, with a sandy bottom; but towards the southern end, where the reef is further from the sh.o.r.e, the depth gradually increases to forty, and in some parts to more than sixty fathoms. Flinders (Flinders' "Voyage to Terra Australis," volume ii., page 88.) has described the surface of this reef as consisting of a hard white agglomerate of different kinds of coral, with rough projecting points. The outer edge is the highest part; it is traversed by narrow gullies, and at rare intervals is breached by ship-channels. The sea close outside is profoundly deep; but, in front of the main breaches, soundings can sometimes be obtained. Some low islets have been formed on the reef.

(PLATE: UNNAMED, THREE VERTICAL SECTIONS (WOODCUT DIAGRAMS):

1. VANIKORO, from the "Atlas of the Voyage of the 'Astrolabe'," by D.