Identifier: journalofresear01darw (find matches)
Title: Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage round the world of H.M.S. 'Beagle,' under the command of Captain Fitz Roy
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882
Subjects: Beagle Expedition (1831-1836) Natural history Geology Voyages around the world
Publisher: London : J. Murray
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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under water the partaffected. Nevertheless, at Keeling atoll I observed on all sidesof the lagoon old cocoa-nut trees undermined and falling ;and in one place the foundation-posts of a shed, which theinhabitants asserted had stood seven years before just abovehigh-water mark, but now was daily washed by every tide ; oninquiry I found that three earthquakes, one of them severe,had been felt here during the last ten years. At Vanikoro 1 It has been highly satisfactory to me to find the following passage in apamphlet by Mr. Couthouy, one of the naturalists in the great Antarctic Expeditionof the United States : Having personally examined a large number of coral-islands,and resided eight months among the volcanic class having shore and partiallyencircling reefs, I may be permitted to state that my own observations haveimpressed a conviction of the correctness of the theory of Mr. Darwin. Thenaturalists, however, of this expedition differ with nie on some points respectingcoral formations.
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xx CHANGES IN CORAL-REEFS 505 the lagoon-channel is remarkably deep, scarcely any alluvialsoil has accumulated at the foot of the lofty included moun-tains, and remarkably few islets have been formed by theheaping of fragments and sand on the wall-like barrier-reef;these facts, and some analogous ones, led me to believe thatthis island must lately have subsided and the reef grownupwards : here again earthquakes are frequent and very severe.In the Society Archipelago, on the other hand, where thelagoon-channels are almost choked up, where much low alluvialland has accumulated, and where in some cases long isletshave been formed on the barrier-reefs—facts all showing thatthe islands have not very lately subsided—only feeble shocksare most rarely felt. In these coral formations, where the landand water seem struggling for mastery, it must be ever difficultto decide between the effects of a change in the set of thetides and of a slight subsidence : that many of these reefs andatolls a

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