第64章

Forster ("Observations made during Voyage round the World," page 147.) describes the plants as already growing out of the dead, but still upright and spreading trees of coral; and the younger Forster ("Voyage," volume ii., page 163.) believes that an ancient lagoon is now represented by a central plain; here we cannot doubt that the elevatory forces have recently acted. The same conclusion may be extended, though with somewhat less certainty, to the islands of the FRIENDLY GROUP, which have been well described in the second and third voyages of Cook. The surface of Tongatabou is low and level, but with some parts a hundred feet high; the whole consists of coral-rock, "which yet shows the cavities and irregularities worn into it by the action of the tides." (Cook's "Third Voyage" (4to edition), volume i., page 314.) On Eoua the same appearances were noticed at an elevation of between two hundred and three hundred feet.

Vavao, also, at the opposite or northern end of the group, consists, according to the Rev. J. Williams, of coral-rock. Tongatabou, with its northern extensive reefs, resembles either an upraised atoll with one half originally imperfect, or one unequally elevated; and Anamouka, an atoll equally elevated. This latter island contains (Ibid., volume i., page 235.) in its centre a salt-water lake, about a mile-and-a-half in diameter, without any communication with the sea, and around it the land rises gradually like a bank; the highest part is only between twenty and thirty feet; but on this part, as well as on the rest of the land (which, as Cook observes, rises above the height of true lagoon-islands), coral-rock, like that on the beach, was found. In the NAVIGATOR ARCHIPELAGO, Mr. Couthouy ("Remarks on Coral-Formations," page 50.) found on Manua many and very large fragments of coral at the height of eighty feet, "on a steep hill-side, rising half a mile inland from a low sandy plain abounding in marine remains." The fragments were embedded in a mixture of decomposed lava and sand. It is not stated whether they were accompanied by shells, or whether the corals resembled recent species; as these remains were embedded they possibly may belong to a remote epoch; but I presume this was not the opinion of Mr. Couthouy. Earthquakes are very frequent in this archipelago.

Still proceeding westward we come to the NEW HEBRIDES; on these islands, Mr. G. Bennett (author of "Wanderings in New South Wales"), informs me he found much coral at a great altitude, which he considered of recent origin.

Respecting SANTA CRUZ, and the SOLOMON ARCHIPELAGO, I have no information; but at New Ireland, which forms the northern point of the latter chain, both Labillardiere and Lesson have described large beds of an apparently very modern madreporitic rock, with the form of the corals little altered.

The latter author ("Voyage de la 'Coquille'," Part. Zoolog.) states that this formation composes a newer line of coast, modelled round an ancient one. There only remains to be described in the Pacific, that curved line of fringed islands, of which the MARIANAS form the main part. Of these Guam, Rota, Tiniam, Saypan, and some islets farther north, are described by Quoy and Gaimard (Freycinet's "Voyage autour du Monde." See also the "Hydrographical Memoir," page 215.), and Chamisso (Kotzebue's "First Voyage."), as chiefly composed of madreporitic limestone, which attains a considerable elevation, and is in several cases worn into successively rising cliffs: the two former naturalists seem to have compared the corals and shells with the existing ones, and state that they are of recent species. FAIS, which lies in the prolonged line of the Marianas, is the only island in this part of the sea which is fringed; it is ninety feet high, and consists entirely of madreporitic rock. (Lutke's "Voyage," volume ii., page 304.)

In the EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, many authors have recorded proofs of recent elevation. M. Lesson (Partie Zoolog., "Voyage de la 'Coquille'.") states, that near Port Dory, on the north coast of New Guinea, the shores are flanked, to the height of 150 feet, by madreporitic strata of modern date.

He mentions similar formations at Waigiou, Amboina, Bourou, Ceram, Sonda, and Timor: at this latter place, MM. Quoy and Gaimard ("Ann. des Scien.

Nat." tom. vi., page 281.) have likewise described the primitive rocks, as coated to a considerable height with coral. Some small islets eastward of Timor are said in Kolff's "Voyage," (translated by Windsor Earl, chapters vi., vii.) to resemble small coral islets upraised some feet above the sea.

Dr. Malcolmson informs me that Dr. Hardie found in JAVA an extensive formation, containing an abundance of shells, of which the greater part appear to be of existing species. Dr. Jack ("Geolog. Transact." 2nd series, volume i., page 403. On the Peninsula of Malacca, in front of Pinang, 5 deg 30' N., Dr. Ward collected some shells, which Dr. Malcolmson informs me, although not compared with existing species, had a recent appearance. Dr. Ward describes in this neighbourhood ("Trans. Asiat. Soc." volume xviii., part ii., page 166) a single water-worn rock, with a conglomerate of sea-shells at its base, situated six miles inland, which, according to the traditions of the natives, was once surrounded by the sea.

Captain Low has also described (Ibid., part i., page 131) mounds of shells lying two miles inland on this line of coast.) has described some upraised shells and corals, apparently recent, on Pulo Nias off SUMATRA; and Marsden relates in his history of this great island, that the names of many promontories, show that they were originally islands. On part of the west coast of BORNEO and at the SOOLOO Islands, the form of the land, the nature of the soil, and the water-washed rocks, present appearances ("Notices of the East Indian Arch." Singapore, 1828, page 6, and Append., page 43.)