The earth and its inhabitants The earth and its inhabitants .. earthitsinhabita00recl Year: 1890 364 AUSTRALASIA. from shoals, begins the true 'Coral Sea,' which is studded, not with rocky- heights, but only with a dangerous labyrinth of coralline masses, and which taken as a whole may be compared to a long submarine bank gradually falling east- wards to a mean depth of 20 fathoms. Here is the true coastline of the Australian continent, and as happens on so many other upraised or submerged seaboards, the parting line between the continental plateau and the abysmal depths of the Pacific Ocean
The earth and its inhabitants The earth and its inhabitants .. earthitsinhabita00recl Year: 1890 364 AUSTRALASIA. from shoals, begins the true 'Coral Sea,' which is studded, not with rocky- heights, but only with a dangerous labyrinth of coralline masses, and which taken as a whole may be compared to a long submarine bank gradually falling east- wards to a mean depth of 20 fathoms. Here is the true coastline of the Australian continent, and as happens on so many other upraised or submerged seaboards, the parting line between the continental plateau and the abysmal depths of the Pacific Ocean is marked by an igneous chain. The volcanoes, however, of the Coral Sea have all become extinct during the present geological epoch, and none of them are of any considerable size, the largest being Murray Island, which lies within the zone of the Great Barrier Reef. Although so near the Australian mainland Fig. 157.—ToEEES Strait. Scale 1 : 7,750,000. Oto5 Fathoms. Depths. 5 to 25 Fathoms. 25 Fathoms and upwards. 120 Miles. of which it is a geological dependence, this island is distinguished from it by its vegetation. The beach and even the lower slopes of the hills, which rise to a height of 600 or 700 feet, are clothed with a continuous forest of cocoanut jjalms, trees which all travellers assure us were not found in Australia before the arrival of the European immigrants. The rampart of reefs forming the outer coastline of Queensland and connecting Australia with New Guinea has a total development of no less than 1,500 miles, without counting minor indentations. It begins at Cape Sandy, where the main- land projects seawards off the convex curve of the east coast, and is at first inter- rupted by broad straits ; but the rocks and shoals soon press closer together, and at last merge in a continuous barrier presenting but few openings accessible to
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