The emerged land beyond the beach, in its earliest stage,
when barely raised above the tides, appears like a vast field of
ruins. Angular- masses of coral rock, varying in dimensions
from one to a hundred cubic feet, lie piled together in the
utmost confusion ; and they are so blackened by exposure, or
from incrusting lichens, as to resemble thiB clinkers of Mauna
Loa ; moreover, they ring like metal under the hammer. Such
regions may be traversed by leaping from block to block, with
the risk of falling into the many recesses among the huge
masses. On breaking an edge from the black masses, the
usual white color of coral is at once apparent Some of the
blocks, measuring five or six feet in each of their dimensions,
were portions of single individual corals ; while others had the
usual conglomerate character of the reef-rock, or, in other
words, were fragments torn by the waves firom the reef-rock.
In the next stage, coral sand has found lodgment among
the blocks ; and although so scantily supplied as hardly to
be detected without close attention, some seeds have taken
root, and vines, purslane, and a few shrubs have begun to
grow, relieving the scene, by their green leaves, of much of
its desolate aspect.
Both of these stages are illustrated on the greater part of
coral islands.
In the last stage, the island stands six to ten feet out of
water. The surface consists of coral sand, more or less dis-
colored by vegetable or animal decomposition. Scattered
among the trees, stand, still uncovered, many of the larger



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BTBUOTUBB OF OOBAL ISLJJfDS.
