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KEELING ISLAND:CORAL FORMATIONS.
Keeling Island. Singular appearance. Scanty Flora. Transport of seeds. Birds and insects. Ebbing and flowing springs. Fields of dead coral. Stones transported in the roots of trees. Great crab. Stinging corals. Coral-eating fish. Coral formations. Lagoon islands or atolls. Depth at which reef-building corals can live. Vast areas interspersed with low coral islands. Subsidence of their foundations. Barrier reefs. Fringing reefs. Conversion of fringing-reefs into barrier-reefs, and into atolls. Evidence of changes in level. Breaches in barrier-reefs. Maldiva atolls; their peculiar structure. Dead and submerged reefs. Areas of subsidence and elevation. Distribution of volcanoes. Subsidence slow and vast in amount.