“ length of it with a line of one hundred and fifty fathoms,
“ or nine hundred feet, without being able to reach [the
“ bottom.” How wonderful, how inconceivable, that such
stupendous fabrics should rise into existence from the silent,
but incessant and almost imperceptible, labours of such insignificant
worms 1
From the soft and leather-like consistence of the tubulated
surfaces of the coral fabrics, it would appear that as the old
animals die and their calcareous cells become rigid, succeeding
generations continue their operations on the upper and
lateral surfaces, each according to the particular form which
nature has prescribed; for the texture and construction of the
rocks are very different in different parts of them ; and though
they have received the general denomination of coral, few of
them ate of that description which, from their ramifications
resembling the roots and branches of trees, led the ancient
naturalists to conclude that they might form an intermediate
class of organized beings, partaking of the double
nature of plants and animals. I t is true, the fragile branches
of corals and corallines being easily broken, their materials
may, by some pirocess, be cemented together, and contribute
to the formation of the amorphous bases of coral islands; but
the great masses of rock appear to be composed chiefly of
madrepores, cellipores, and tubipores. In order to ascertain
whether the central part, as well as the shore, of North
Island consisted of these substances, we removed the soil,
and at the depth of about three feet found large blocks of
madrepores, and various cellular masses of calcareous formation
; and, among other articles, -we dug up a very large shell
7
of the Chama gigas, supposed to be the largest species of
shell-fish that exists in the universe. One of the old Dutc
navigators observes, that thirty of his people made a very
comfortable supper of a single cockle, for the relation of winch
it may readily be supposed he obtained very little credit.
The gigantic Chama, which was the Dutchmans cockle, is,
however, sufficiently large for the purpose; near the shores
of the island we found several of these shells, some of which
could not be of less weight than four hundred pounds the
pair.
I t is sufficiently remarkable that, although different kinds
of what are usually called corals or corallines are found on the
shores of the West India islands, no huge masses of rock, nor
reefs, nor islands wholly composed of this material, have
been discovered. A process of creation, carried on by such
minute and imperceptibly gradation, may probably require a
pacific ocean, and be liable to too much interruption from the
hurricanes of the Atlantic, or from the, stream which, sweeping
round the Cape of Good Hope, sets with rapidity through
the gulf of Mexico and beyond the banks of Newfoundland.
When we reflect, however, that a very large proportion of
the multitude of islands which are found between the tropics,
in the opposite hemisphere, have been created by the meanest
and most insignificant of animated beings, so very insignificant
indeed that many of the species have not yet been discovered
by man, | it is impossible,” as Sir George Stauntoii
has well observed,. “ not to be struck With the diversified
“ operations of nature for obtaining the same end, whether
. • 11 _ ; 1 C—. . 1 v , n 4" 1 A n / ili* ■ f i l