But "Wisdom, It Is Certain, Will Be Justified Of All Who Are Under Its Influence." - E.

[6] "The difference between the salubrity of the two vessels probably arose from the want of fresh air in the Adventure, our sloop being higher out of the water, so that we could open more scuttles in bad weather than our consort.

Our people likewise made a greater consumption of sour-krout and wort, and particularly applied the grains of the latter to all blotches and swelled parts, a regimen which had been omitted by those in the Adventure." - G.F.

[7] "After many wishes, and long expectation, we this day, (6th August,) got the S.E. trade-wind. Its manner of coming on was rather remarkable. About ten o'clock in the morning, a thick haze began to rise in the eastern quarter, which by noon was become so thick, and had spread so far, that it was with difficulty we got the sun's meridian altitude; but the N.W. wind, which we had had for about a fortnight, during which time the weather was generally fine and pleasant, still continued to blow. In the afternoon we had some pretty brisk showers, with which the N.W. wind died away, and it was calm till eight o'clock in the evening, when a brisk steady gale sprung up at S.E., and proved permanent." - W.

Mr F. has given some very valuable remarks respecting the trade-winds but they are too long for this place. - E.

[8] "Our thermometer was now constantly between 70 and 80 degrees in the morning; but the heat was far from being troublesome, as the fair weather was accompanied by a strong pleasant trade-wind," - G.F.

[9] This is a very fit place for the following curious observations on the formation of the low islands spoken of in the text. "All the low isles seem to me to be a production of the sea, or rather its inhabitants, the polype-like animals forming the lithophytes. These animalcules raise their habitation gradually from a small base, always spreading more and more, in proportion as the structure grows higher. The materials are a kind of lime mixed with some animal substance. I have seen these large structures in all stages, and of various extent. Near Turtle-Island, we found, at a few miles distance, and to leeward of it, a considerable large circular reef, over which the sea broke every where, and no part of it was above water; it included a large deep lagoon. To the east and north-east of the Society-Isles, are a great many isles, which, in some parts, are above water; in others, the elevated parts are connected by reefs, some of which, are dry at low-water, and others are constantly under water. The elevated parts consist of a soil formed by a sand of shells and coral rocks, mixed with a light black mould, produced from putrified vegetables, and the dung of sea-fowls; and are commonly covered by cocoa-nut trees and other shrubs, and a few antiscorbutic plants. The lower parts have only a few shrubs, and the above plants; others still lower, are washed by the sea at high-water. All these isles are connected, and include a lagoon in the middle, which is full of the finest fish; and sometimes there is an opening, admitting a boat, or canoe, in the reef, but I never saw or heard of an opening that would admit a ship. The reef, or the first origin of these cells, is formed by the animalcules inhabiting the lithophytes. They raise their habitation within a little of the surface of the sea, which gradually throws shells, weeds, sand, small bits of corals, and other things, on the tops of these coral rocks, and at last fairly raises them above water; where the above things continue to be accumulated by the sea, till by a bird, or by the sea, a few seeds of plants, that commonly grow on the sea-shore, are thrown up, and begin to vegetate; and by their annual decay and reproduction from seeds, create a little mould, yearly accumulated by the mixture from sand, increasing the dry spot on every side; till another sea happens to carry a cocoa-nut hither, which preserves its vegetative power a long time in the sea, and therefore will soon begin to grow on this soil, especially as it thrives equally in all kinds of soil; and thus may all these low isles have become covered with the finest cocoa-nut trees. The animalcules forming these reefs, want to shelter their habitation from the impetuosity of the winds, and the power and rage of the ocean; but as within the tropics, the winds blow commonly from one quarter, they, by instinct, endeavour to stretch only a ledge, within which is a lagoon, which is certainly entirely screened against the power of both; this, therefore, might account for the method employed by the animalcules in building only narrow ledges of coral rocks, to secure in this middle a calm and sheltered place, and this seems to me to be the most probable cause of the origin of all the tropical low isles, over the whole South Sea." - F.

This theory has been pretty generally adopted by scientific men, and does not seem liable to any valid objection. The astonishment it may excite, is quite analogous to what is experienced on any discovery of the important ends to which the instinctive labours of other creatures are subservient, and is great, merely because of the conceived magnitude of the object to which it relates. But this affords no presumption against the truth of the theory; rather indeed, if the doctrine of final causes be allowed any credit, may be held, as in some degree, circumstantial evidence in its favour. We shall elsewhere, it is expected, have occasion to consider the subject with the attention it deserves. - E.

SECTION X.

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