The Voyage Of The Beagle By Charles Darwin





































































 - 

If, instead of an island, we had taken the shore of a continent
fringed with reefs, and had imagined it - Page 727
The Voyage Of The Beagle By Charles Darwin - Page 727 of 776 - First - Home

Enter page number    Previous Next

Number of Words to Display Per Page: 250 500 1000

If, Instead Of An Island, We Had Taken The Shore Of A Continent Fringed With Reefs, And Had Imagined It To Have Subsided, A Great Straight Barrier, Like That Of Australia Or New Caledonia, Separated From The Land By A Wide And Deep Channel, Would Evidently Have Been The Result.

Let us take our new encircling barrier-reef, of which the section is now represented by unbroken lines, and which, as I have said, is a real section through Bolabola, and let it go on subsiding.

As the barrier-reef slowly sinks down, the corals will go on vigorously growing upwards; but as the island sinks, the water will gain inch by inch on the shore - the separate mountains first forming separate islands within

[picture]

one great reef - and finally, the last and highest pinnacle disappearing. The instant this takes place, a perfect atoll is formed: I have said, remove the high land from within an encircling barrier-reef, and an atoll is left, and the land has been removed. We can now perceive how it comes that atolls, having sprung from encircling barrier-reefs, resemble them in general size, form, in the manner in which they are grouped together, and in their arrangement in single or double lines; for they may be called rude outline charts of the sunken islands over which they stand. We can further see how it arises that the atolls in the Pacific and Indian Oceans extend in lines parallel to the generally prevailing strike of the high islands and great coast-lines of those oceans.

Enter page number   Previous Next
Page 727 of 776
Words from 194856 to 195116 of 208183


Previous 727 728 729 730 731 732 733 734 735 736 Next

More links: First 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200
 210 220 230 240 250 260 270 280 290 300
 310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390 400
 410 420 430 440 450 460 470 480 490 500
 510 520 530 540 550 560 570 580 590 600
 610 620 630 640 650 660 670 680 690 700
 710 720 730 740 750 760 770 Last

Display Words Per Page: 250 500 1000

 
Africa (29)
Asia (27)
Europe (59)
North America (58)
Oceania (24)
South America (8)
 

List of Travel Books RSS Feeds

Africa Travel Books RSS Feed

Asia Travel Books RSS Feed

Europe Travel Books RSS Feed

North America Travel Books RSS Feed

Oceania Travel Books RSS Feed

South America Travel Books RSS Feed

Copyright © 2005 - 2022 Travel Books Online