of clay having been found within one of the Marshall atolls. No doubt this
clay is calcareous mud, similar to that at Keeling Island, and to that at
Bermuda already referred to, as undistinguishable from disintegrated chalk,
and which Lieutenant Nelson says is called there pipe-clay. (I may here
observe that on the coast of Brazil, where there is much coral, the
soundings near the land are described by Admiral Roussin, in the "Pilote du
Bresil", as siliceous sand, mingled with much finely comminuted particles
of shells and coral. Further in the offing, for a space of 1,300 miles
along the coast, from the Abrolhos Islands to Maranham, the bottom in many
places is composed of "tuf blanc, mele ou forme de madrepores broyes."
This white substance, probably, is analogous to that which occurs within
the above-mentioned lagoons; it is sometimes, according to Roussin, firm,
and he compares it to mortar.)

Where the waves act with unequal force on the two sides of an atoll, the
islets appear to be first formed, and are generally of greater continuity
on the more exposed shore. The islets, also, which are placed to leeward,
are in most parts of the Pacific liable to be occasionally swept entirely
away by gales, equalling hurricanes in violence, which blow in an opposite
direction to the ordinary trade-wind. The absence of the islets on the
leeward side of atolls, or when present their lesser dimensions compared
with those to windward, is a comparatively unimportant fact; but in several
instances the reef itself on the leeward side, retaining its usual defined
outline, does not rise to the surface by several fathoms. This is the case
with the southern side of Peros Banhos (Plate I., Figure 9) in the Chagos
group, with Mourileu atoll (Frederick Lutke's "Voyage autour du Monde,"
volume ii., page 291. See also his account of Namonouito, below, and the
chart of Oulleay in the Atlas.) in the Caroline Archipelago, and with the
barrier-reef (Plate I., Figure 8) of the Gambier Islands. I allude to the
latter reef, although belonging to another class, because Captain Beechey