The Water Was So Clear And Shallow, That Although
At First A Turtle Quickly Dives Out Of Sight, Yet In A
Canoe Or Boat Under Sail, The Pursuers After No Very Long
Chase Come Up To It.
A man standing ready in the bow, at
this moment dashes through the water upon the turtle's back;
then
Clinging with both hands by the shell of its neck, he is
carried away till the animal becomes exhausted and is secured.
It was quite an interesting chase to see the two boats
thus doubling about, and the men dashing head foremost
into the water trying to seize their prey. Captain Moresby
informs me that in the Chagos archipelago in this same
ocean, the natives, by a horrible process, take the shell from
the back of the living turtle. "It is covered with burning
charcoal, which causes the outer shell to curl upwards, it is
then forced off with a knife, and before it becomes cold
flattened between boards. After this barbarous process the
animal is suffered to regain its native element, where, after
a certain time, a new shell is formed; it is, however, too
thin to be of any service, and the animal always appears
languishing and sickly."
When we arrived at the head of the lagoon, we crossed a
narrow islet, and found a great surf breaking on the windward
coast. I can hardly explain the reason, but there is to
my mind much grandeur in the view of the outer shores of
these lagoon-islands. There is a simplicity in the barrier-like
beach, the margin of green bushes and tall cocoa-nuts,
the solid flat of dead coral-rock, strewed here and there
with great loose fragments, and the line of furious breakers,
all rounding away towards either hand. The ocean
throwing its waters over the broad reef appears an invincible,
all-powerful enemy; yet we see it resisted, and even
conquered, by means which at first seem most weak and
inefficient. It is not that the ocean spares the rock of coral;
the great fragments scattered over the reef, and heaped on
the beach, whence the tall cocoa-nut springs, plainly bespeak
the unrelenting power of the waves. Nor are any
periods of repose granted. The long swell caused by the
gentle but steady action of the trade-wind, always blowing
in one direction over a wide area, causes breakers, almost
equalling in force those during a gale of wind in the temperate
regions, and which never cease to rage. It is impossible
to behold these waves without feeling a conviction that
an island, though built of the hardest rock, let it be porphyry,
granite, or quartz, would ultimately yield and be demolished
by such an irresistible power. Yet these low, insignificant
coral-islets stand and are victorious: for here another power,
as an antagonist, takes part in the contest. The organic forces
separate the atoms of carbonate of lime, one by one, from
the foaming breakers, and unite them into a symmetrical
structure. Let the hurricane tear up its thousand huge
fragments; yet what will that tell against the accumulated
labour of myriads of architects at work night and day, month
after month? Thus do we see the soft and gelatinous body of a
polypus, through the agency of the vital laws, conquering
the great mechanical power of the waves of an ocean which
neither the art of man nor the inanimate works of nature
could successfully resist.
We did not return on board till late in the evening, for we
stayed a long time in the lagoon, examining the fields of
coral and the gigantic shells of the chama, into which, if a
man were to put his hand, he would not, as long as the animal
lived, be able to withdraw it. Near the head of the
lagoon I was much surprised to find a wide area, considerably
more than a mile square, covered with a forest of delicately
branching corals, which, though standing upright,
were all dead and rotten. At first I was quite at a loss to
understand the cause afterwards it occurred to me that it
was owing to the following rather curious combination of
circumstances. It should, however, first be stated, that corals
are not able to survive even a short exposure in the air to
the sun's rays, so that their upward limit of growth is
determined by that of lowest water at spring tides. It appears,
from some old charts, that the long island to windward was
formerly separated by wide channels into several islets; this
fact is likewise indicated by the trees being younger on these
portions. Under the former condition of the reef, a strong
breeze, by throwing more water over the barrier, would tend
to raise the level of the lagoon. Now it acts in a directly
contrary manner; for the water within the lagoon not only
is not increased by currents from the outside, but is itself
blown outwards by the force of the wind. Hence it is observed,
that the tide near the head of the lagoon does not
rise so high during a strong breeze as it does when it is
calm. This difference of level, although no doubt very small,
has, I believe, caused the death of those coral-groves, which
under the former and more open condition of the outer reef
has attained the utmost possible limit of upward growth.
A few miles north of Keeling there is another small atoll,
the lagoon of which is nearly filled up with coral-mud. Captain
Ross found embedded in the conglomerate on the outer
coast, a well-rounded fragment of greenstone, rather larger
than a man's head: he and the men with him were so much
surprised at this, that they brought it away and preserved it
as a curiosity. The occurrence of this one stone, where
every other particle of matter is calcareous, certainly is very
puzzling. The island has scarcely ever been visited, nor is it
probable that a ship had been wrecked there.
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