The Voyage Of The Beagle By Charles Darwin





































































 -   Now,
every reef of the fringing class is breached by a narrow
gateway in front of the smallest rivulet, even - Page 731
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Now, Every Reef Of The Fringing Class Is Breached By A Narrow Gateway In Front Of The Smallest Rivulet, Even If Dry During The Greater Part Of The Year, For The Mud, Sand, Or Gravel, Occasionally Washed Down Kills The Corals On Which It Is Deposited.

Consequently, when an island thus fringed subsides, though most of the narrow gateways will probably become closed by the

Outward and upward growth of the corals, yet any that are not closed (and some must always be kept open by the sediment and impure water flowing out of the lagoon-channel) will still continue to front exactly the upper parts of those valleys, at the mouths of which the original basal fringing-reef was breached.

We can easily see how an island fronted only on one side, or on one side with one end or both ends encircled by barrier-reefs, might after long-continued subsidence be converted either into a single wall-like reef, or into an atoll with a great straight spur projecting from it, or into two or three atolls tied together by straight reefs - all of which exceptional cases actually occur. As the reef-building corals require food, are preyed upon by other animals, are killed by sediment, cannot adhere to a loose bottom, and may be easily carried down to a depth whence they cannot spring up again, we need feel no surprise at the reefs both of atolls and barriers becoming in parts imperfect. The great barrier of New Caledonia is thus imperfect and broken in many parts; hence, after long subsidence, this great reef would not produce one great atoll 400 miles in length, but a chain or archipelago of atolls, of very nearly the same dimension with those in the Maldiva archipelago.

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