mm
■ R
FO RM A TION
-GF
ISLES.
R E M A -R K S o n t h e .
the middle, which is full of the fineil; fifth; and fometimes there is
an.QDening, admitting a boat or canoe in the reef, but I never faw
or heard o f an opening that would admit ailiip.
T h e reef, or the firft origin of-thefe.illes, is formed by the animalcules
inhabiting the lithophytes. Th e y rails their habitation
within a little o f .-the furface of the .lea, which gradually throws
Ihblls, weeds, fand; fmall bits o f corals, and- other things on the
tops of-thefe coral rocks, and at laft fairly raifes.them above water .;
where the above things continue.to be accumulated by the fea, till
by a bird,. or by the fea, a few feeds o f plants, that commonly grow
on the fea-fliore, are thrown up, and begin to vegetate; and by
their annual decay and jre-produftion from feeds, create a little
mould, yearly accumulated by the mixture with fand, increafing
the dry fpot on every fide ; till another fea happens to carry a coconut
hither, which preferves its vegetative power along time in the.
fea, and therefore will foon begin to grow on this foil, efpecially .as
i t thrives equally in all kinds o f .foil.; and .thus may all thefe low ifles
have become covered with the.finefl: coco-nut trees.
T h e animalcules forming thefe reefs, want to fhelter their habita-
i tion from the impetuofity o f the winds, and the power and rage o f
the ocean ; but as, within the tropic«,, the winds blow commonly
from one quarter, they, by inftindt, endeavour to ftretch only a
ledge,, within whichis a lagoon, which is certainly entirely fcreened
C H A N G E S o f o |u r G L O B E ,
ed againft the power o f b o th ; this therefore might account for the
method employed by the animalcules in building only narrow ledges
o f coral rocks, to fecure in their middle a calm and fheltered place g
and thisfeems to me to be the moil; probable caufe o f t h e o r i g i n
o f all t h e t r o p i c a l ; l o w i s l e s , over the whole .South-Sea;
W e come now to the h i g h e r - ones. Lm u ft confefs, there i s
hardly one o f them, which had not'one way or other, ftrong marks
and veftiges left, o f its having undergone fome violent alteration in
its furface by fire, or, as I ihould rather fay, by a volcano. . .
I t is. very well known, that many ifles-* have been -raifecr out of
the fea by the aftion o f a fubterraneous fire; Th e iflands of Sa n t
o r in i , and the two KLa m e n i s -}-> in-tlie:Greek Archipelago, and
the iile formed in 1720, in the. Weftern Ifles i ; are inconteftible
proofs.
* pfih. Hilt. Nat. lib; ii. c. 8S, 8§. lib. iv. c; 22.— SenècaNat. Qùiefti'.vi. c. 21, 26.
Si lib. ii. c. 26.— Strab. Almeloven. p. 94, 100.— Plutarch, de Pythiæ Oraculis, ex edit.
Xyland. Frft. 1620'. p. 399.—Pnufau.Tib. viii, c. 3 3.— Judin. lib. xxx. e. 4— Niceph. Pa.
triarch. Brcv. I-lift. Paris, 1648. p. 37. ad ann. .7 2 7.. -ad e and.. Theophal. Chronogr. refert.
— Cedren. 8c Pauli Diacon. Coronelli Ifolario, p. 243. edit. Vcnet. 1696. fol.— Philof.
Tranf. vol. xxvii. No. 332.— Dio. Call'. lib. lx. c. 29.— Aurel. Vidtor. in Claudio.— Aram,
Marcell. edit. Valcf. Paris, 1681. fol. lib. xvii. c. 7.— Pindar. 01. Ode 2.— Diod. Sic. lib. v.
c. 3 5.— Heraclid. Pont, de Phlif. Gncc. ad catcem Cragii, de -Rep. Laced.— Philo Jud. de,
Mundi incorrupt, p. 959,
f Nouveaux Memoires des Millions, tom. i— Philof, Tranf..vpl. xxvii. n. 332.
Î Gaflendi de Vita Epicuri; vol. ii. p. 1050.— Hid. de 1’Acad, de Paris, de 1721. p. 26.
& 1722. p. 12.— Philbf. Tranf. abridg. itom.-v. fedt, it. p. 154. Comment. Bonon. tom. i.
p. 203.
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