File:Nature (1910) (14576716779).jpg

Identifier: nature841910lock (find matches)
Title: Nature
Year: 1869 (1860s)
Authors: Lockyer, Norman, Sir, 1836-1920. edt
Subjects: Science Science Sciences Biologie Physique Natuurwetenschappen CIENCIA NATURAL HISTORY BIOLOGY SCIENCE
Publisher: (London, etc., Macmillan Journals Ltd., etc.)
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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pt by reference to other atolls to justify it.Solution and material swept out by the tides are saidto have nothing to do with the formation of thelagoons of atolls. The picture of a high islandcrumbling to pieces within the calm of an encirclingbarrier reef appears to our author to be contrary toall natural laws. On what view does he explainAgassizs wonderful series of photographs of Fijianislands within barrier reefs? In this (his own) de-scription, he states, it is assumed throughout thatthe lagoon is a slightly submerged reef; why thisassumption without evidence? The encircling reef issaid to be a mosaic inlay of coral fragments,cemented together into a solid platform, but there 5sno evidence that it was ever really examined. It issupposed to have grown up as a platform, and manyof its constituent organisms must surely have re-mained in their growth-positions. A similar platformis found at 13 feet above mean tide level; it is statedthat such a platform can only be formed below this
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Fig. 2.—Photograph ofof the genus Scaniaby the fish. From The black liCoral and Atoll: ed Uiad Coral Rock, to show Iirks the edge of the alga covering level, and its existence is explained as due to eleva-tion. Our author does good service in directing attentionto the important effects of sedimentation. Sedimen-tation banks largely form the foundations of reefs,but it matters not what the base mav be so long asits platform comes within the wind-stirred area. .\nv elevation which rises to this plane (the Umititigline of sedimentation) will furnish the corals with asuitable basis. The depth of this line varies. It isentirelv a supposititious line, and, so far as we canunderstand, mav lie at any depth. Direct investiga-tion on the processes of sedimentation in the oceanis certainly needed. In conclusion, it cannot be said that Dr. Wood-Jones has much new to tell us. His volume is, how-ever, a very readable one, and most suggestive oflines of research on corals, which might profitably b

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