Thus
Radack Group Of Atolls Is An Irregular Square, 520 Miles Long
And 240 Broad; The Low Archipelago Is Elliptic-Formed, 840
Miles In Its Longer, And 420 In Its Shorter Axis:
There are
other small groups and single low islands between these two
archipelagoes, making a linear space of ocean actually more
than 4000 miles in length, in which not one single island
rises above the specified height.
Again, in the Indian Ocean
there is a space of ocean 1500 miles in length, including
three archipelagoes, in which every island is low and of
coral formation. From the fact of the reef-building corals
not living at great depths, it is absolutely certain that
throughout these vast areas, wherever there is now an atoll,
a foundation must have originally existed within a depth of
from 20 to 30 fathoms from the surface. It is improbable in
the highest degree that broad, lofty, isolated, steep-sided
banks of sediment, arranged in groups and lines hundreds of
leagues in length, could have been deposited in the central
and profoundest parts of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, at
an immense distance from any continent, and where the
water is perfectly limpid. It is equally improbable that the
elevatory forces should have uplifted throughout the above
vast areas, innumerable great rocky banks within 20 to 30
fathoms, or 120 to 180 feet, of the surface of the sea, and
not one single point above that level; for where on the whole
surface of the globe can we find a single chain of mountains,
even a few hundred miles in length, with their many summits
rising within a few feet of a given level, and not one
pinnacle above it?
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