. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. Zoology. AGASSIZ: FIJI ISLANDS AND CORAL EEEFS. 27 — remnants left from the disintegration and erosion of the former o-reater Mbengha. The bottom in the lagoon is a mixture of volcanic mvxd and coral sand in the vicinity of the islands, but as we pi-oceed towards the reef it car- ries a greater admixture of coralline aXgse and of coral sand, and in the belt adjoining the inner edge of the outer reef is made up entii'cly of fragments of coi-al, of coral sand, and of coralline algte. In the central parts of the lagoon it is algs
. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. Zoology. AGASSIZ: FIJI ISLANDS AND CORAL EEEFS. 27 — remnants left from the disintegration and erosion of the former o-reater Mbengha. The bottom in the lagoon is a mixture of volcanic mvxd and coral sand in the vicinity of the islands, but as we pi-oceed towards the reef it car- ries a greater admixture of coralline aXgse and of coral sand, and in the belt adjoining the inner edge of the outer reef is made up entii'cly of fragments of coi-al, of coral sand, and of coralline algte. In the central parts of the lagoon it is algse and corallines. The reef rises very gradually from seven fathoms to a depth of from two to three feet on the reef flat. This is covered w'ith fragments of dead corals which increase in number towards the sea edge of the reef. The fragments are covered with algte, corallines, and nullipores, which cement them together. In depths of seven to eight fathoms heads and clusters of corals begin to grow. They are separated by wide lanes of coral sand, and as we rise on the slope of the reef they grow more closely, forming a wide belt of thriving corals from six to three or two fathoms in depth, when they grow less profusely, and finally pass into the wide flat area of the outer reef, made up of broken corals and fragments, and large masses thrown up on the sea face of the reef, which are gradually being broken up by the surf beating upon the reef flat. Storm Islet ^ (Plate 49) is an excellent specimen of a sand key thrown up by the waves upon the outer reef flats. It is somewhat less than three hundred yards long and about eighty yai'ds wide. The beach is quite steep, protected by lai'ge patches of beach I'ock, which surround the southern extremity of the isl- and. Tiie crest of the island is covered with cocoanut trees, screw pines, and casuarinas, as well as witli an outer fringe of bushes and shrubs. The greater part of the shores of ]\Ibengha Island are edged with a fringing re
Size: 2910px × 859px
Photo credit: © Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorha, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology
