Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1890-12-19
CORAL REEFS.
STRANGE LITTLE HERMITAGES
IN THE INDIAN OCEAN
New IsIets Constantly Being Created
by the Industrious. But Invisible
Little Insect-The Laccadive
Coral Archipelago.

tween the two groups forms a kind OF
marine street, through which vessels of
all nations pass by hundreds and thou
sands every year. The four chief islands
of the Laccadiye Archipelago (the name
of which signifies 100000 islands'),
viz, Ameni, Kardmut, Kilton and Chit
lac, have actually belonged to England
since 1890, and the others are claimed
by the Rance or Beebee of Cannamore
"a Hindoo princess under British protec-
tom, while the Maldive group has large
trade with the west coast of India itself.
The nineteen "atolls" or coral groups
are all on the same pattern, viz, a cir
cular reef of white coral, inclosing a
smooth, shallow lagoon studded with tiny
palm crested islets. Some of these rise
barely six feet above the surface,
while many Others are actually "awash, "
so that a ship may run her bow aground
on them with 100 fathoms of water be-
meath her stern. In fact, the Maldive
atolls are best described by imagining a
submerged group of extinct volcanoes,
pure white instead of black, with their
craters just above the sea, and few
islands floating in them like tea leaves in
cup.
When the novelists of the future have
exhausted the whole world as now exist.
ing, they can still avail themselves Of
some new islet created by the unseen la.
bors Of the coral insect. Month after
month, year after year, the tiny mason
builds up his wall of stony flowers and
leaves from the unknown depths below
till it reaches the surface of the sea. Be
yond this he cannot go, but other in-
fuences are at hand to complete his work
Every wave, every storm casts something
upon the lew foundation. Simple MOSES
and lichens grow and die, gradually
spreading over the bare coral an ever
growing layer of vegetable soil. Cocoa
nuts stranded on it by the sea and seeds
let fall by passing birds strike root in the
soil thus prepared and the once bare and
nameless reef takes rank among the islands
of the world.
Here, even more fully than in the now
hackneyed islands of the Pacific, one may
realize Tennyson's visions of the "sum-
mer isles of Eden You find ripe fruit
showering down upon you from the trees,
edible roots starting up under your feet,
fish literally 'shoulderin' aich other out
of the wather," like the Irish salmon,
and "wsrm baths ready at all hours, in
the clear, bright, CLASSY waters of the
lagoon.
When you feel disposed to call on
your next door neighbor-i. e., the in
habitant of the nearest islet-you are
pretty safe to find him sat home" I'M
less he should be out fishing, and even
then you can generally descry him some
where in the offing and signal to him to
come back. And then, if you have a
spare knife or hatchet to barter for his
fresh fish, you may combine business
with pleasure by doing a little private
trading while improving your acquaint-
ance with the Maldivian dialect, which
is most perplexingly different from the
languages of Ceylon and the Indian main
land, and indeed from every other Ian
guage that you have ever learned.
When the storms of the rainy season
come on you can amuse yourself by sit
ting indoors and watching the ship
wrecks, and when the time comes for the
yearly departure of the trading feet to
the Malabar coast of India you are re-
called with a spectacle even more strik-
ing. All along the sea line there de6les
before your eyes seemingly endless pro-
cession of bungalows (small craft), which,
with their high sterns and low bows,
look just as if they were going down
head foremost. Any old tar Of Nelson's
time would have turned up his nose sky
high at the bamboo masts, rattan
cordage, mat sails and carved,
painted, square-windowed sterns of
these queer little skimmers Of the
seas; but when one meets them thou
sands Of miles from home in the stormiest
period of the whole year, as far away as
Calcutta on one side or the Red Sea on
the other, and when one has seen how
dexterously and fearlessly the half dozen
gaunt, brown scarecrows that form their
crew will ride them over waves which
might make the captain of P. and O..
steamer look grave, one is much moro
inclined to admire them than to laugh at
them.
The freight brought back by the NAL
dive bungalows from India and Malacca
consists chiefly Of rice, which is the
great local import; but the outward
bound cagoes are usually very miscel-
laneous indeed. One vessel is loaded
with what we might take for telegraph
wire at first sight, and indeed it is some
thing quite as strong-the famous light
brown "coir rope" twisted out Of dried
grass, and used as cordage by all the ma
tive boats of the Indian Ocean-whil'
ell the rest Of the scanty spsce is cramraec