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.
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