Now only rings of coral-rock scarcely break the open
expanse of the sea, throwing some light on the distribution of
the inhabitants of the other high islands, now left standing
so immensely remote from each other in the midst of the
great oceans. The reef-constructing corals have indeed
reared and preserved wonderful memorials of the subterranean
oscillations of level; we see in each barrier-reef a
proof that the land has there subsided, and in each atoll a
monument over an island now lost. We may thus, like unto
a geologist who had lived his ten thousand years and kept a
record of the passing changes, gain some insight into the
great system by which the surface of this globe has been
broken up, and land and water interchanged.
[1] These Plants are described in the Annals of Nat. Hist.,
vol. i., 1838, p. 337.
[2] Holman's Travels, vol. iv. p. 378.
[3] Kotzebue's First Voyage, vol. iii. p. 155.
[4] The thirteen species belong to the following orders: - In
the Coleoptera, a minute Elater; Orthoptera, a Gryllus and a
Blatta; Hemiptera, one species; Homoptera, two; Neuroptera a
Chrysopa; Hymenoptera, two ants; Lepidoptera nocturna, a
Diopaea, and a Pterophorus (?); Diptera, two species.
