Note 79 — Chapter XIII

Another theory relative to the formation of the lagoon islands is, that the coral circuit is but the edge of a submarine elevation crater, on which the coral animals have raised their edifice. This view, which has been adopted by Von Buch and Captain Beechy, to whom we are indebted more than to any other navigator for positive information and admirable surveys of the coral islands of the Pacific, receives corroboration from the perfect conformity in shape between many of the lagoon islands of the Gambier group and the known elevation craters, and from the circumstance of a lagoon island having been seen to rise in 1825, in lat. 30° 14ʹ, accompanied with smoke, and communicating so high a temperature to the surrounding sea as rendered it impossible to land.—See Beechy’s Voyages, and Pœppig’s Reise.