Now, what a very singular fact this is, that
we should have rising from the bottom of the deep ocean a great pyramid,
beside which all human pyramids sink into the most utter
insignificance! These singular coral limestone structures are very
beautiful, especially when crowned with cocoa-nut trees. There you see
the long line of land, covered with vegetation--cocoa-nut trees--and you
have the sea upon the inner and outer sides, with a vessel very
comfortably riding at anchor. That is one of the remarkable forms of
reef in the Pacific. Another is a sort of half-way house, between the
atoll and the fringing reef; it is what is called an "encircling reef."
In this case you see an Island rising out of the sea, and at two or
three miles distance, or more, and separated by a deep channel, which
may be eight to twelve fathoms deep, there is a reef, which encircles
it like a great girdle; and outside that again the water is one or two
thousand feet deep. I spent three or four years of my life in cruising
about a modification of one of these encircling reefs, called a
"barrier reef," upon the east coast of Australia--one of the most
wonderful accumulations of coral rock in the world.
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