[90]. “So vast an expanse!” Mr. Darwin traced coral reefs in the Pacific, 4,000 miles long and 600 broad. Between the coasts of Malabar and Madagascar there is a chain of coral reefs, called the Maldives and Laccadives, 480 miles long and 50 miles wide. On the east coast of Australia there is an unbroken reef of 350 miles long; and between Australia and Guinea, coral reefs extend 700 miles in length. Truly the coral animals, like the “conies,” are a “feeble folk,” but their habitations survive our proudest monuments.
[91]. Hugh Miller’s First Impressions, pp. 203, 204.
[92]. Brash is s Wiltshire word for short or brittle; and thus a quick-tempered, irritable person, is said to have a brashy temper.
[93]. Geology for Beginners (Weale’s Series), p. 147.
[94]. Juke’s Popular Geology, pp. 42–44.
[95]. From krinos, a lily, and eidos, like; lily-shaped animals of the Radiated division, forming a link between the animal and vegetable world.
[96]. From trochos, a wheel; wheel-shaped crinoideans.
[97]. From pteron, a wing, and dactulos, a finger; the wing-fingered animal.
[98]. The term Weald or Wold is the old Saxon for our present Wood; and now, altered by pronunciation, is found in connexion with many words and names of places: e.g. Waltham (Weald-ham), the wood house or home; Walthamstow, the wood house store, and so on. Thus it is that words are “fossil poetry.”
[99]. Alison’s description of South America, in History of Europe (Article, South American Revolution); vol. viii.