FUNERAL OBSEQUIES.

511

activity. But he never attained that evening life at Princeville, but died in official harness at his villa in the 'Nuuanu valley near Honolulu, which he named Rosebank.

An almost royal funeral was granted by a grateful sovereign to his faithful minister. There is not space here to describe the service in the English cathedral, the mustering of troops, the attendance of the masonic bodies, in which Mr. Wyllie had attained high rank, or the final procession at night by torch-light, when his corpse was carried to its last earthly resting-place in the new royal mausoleum. The burial-place of the Hawaiian Kings in the Nuuanu valley having been completed, this opportunity was taken for removing into it all the coffins containing the remains of the royal family. The Hawaiian Gazette' of the 4th of November 1865 contains a complete and interesting account of this procession, the order of the coffins, and the inscriptions on them. The earliest in date of the Hawaiian chiefs were Liloa and Lonoi Kamakahike, whose bones were brought from the secret place in which, according to ancient Hawaiian custom, they had been concealed, and were placed in one coffin. Liloa was the father of the celebrated King Umi, the progenitor of the present royal family, who is supposed to have ruled about five hundred years ago.

In Mr. Wyllie Hawaii has lost a sure and strong friend. It is too soon yet to speculate what changes may be the consequence of his death. He was the Nestor of the Council, the adviser of Kings, an example of industry, and a benefactor to the native race. Hawaii may perhaps have occasion to say, with the Tekoan herdsman, By whom shall Jacob arise, for he

Poor

is small!' It is such men as Wyllie to whom King and people and foreigners also still must look; and whilst their searching eyes glance round the horizon, their lips may prayerfully exclaim

EXORIARE ALIQUIS !

APPENDIX.

CORAL ISLANDS.

[T is the general assumption that coral islands are built up

It is the in by the unaided labour of

lithophytes. Doubts of this fact have, however, been entertained and expressed. Captain Wilkes, who commanded the United States Exploring Expedition (1838-1842), has stated his decision, that coral islands cannot possibly be entirely the work of zoophytes. He pronounces the labours of these minute animalculæ inadequate to produce effects so enormous, and says that the appearance of the reefs themselves contradicts such a presumption; and he adds that Darwin's ingenious theory of an equal growth and subsidence of coral taking place is at variance alike with the configuration, extent, and general construction of the reefs. Darwin argues thus:-From the limited depth at which reef-building polypifers can flourish, one ought to conclude that both in atolls and barrier-reefs the foundation to which the coral primarily is attached has subsided, and that during the gradual depression of the base of the coral, reefs have grown upward. He says this will satisfactorily explain their outline, general form, and distribution; that the existence of reefs and islands dispersed in large tracts of ocean, which islands and reefs are formed by the growth of kinds of coral, the insects of which cannot live at great depths, is inexplicable, except on the theory that the base to which the reefs are first attached slowly and successively sinks whilst the corals grow upwards; that no positive facts are opposed to this view, &c. (Voyages of the Beagle.')

If we consider the stupendous workmanship required to

LL

upheave a reef hundreds of miles in length, and such exist; that on the north-east coast of New Holland and New Caledonia extending four hundred miles,-or islands many hundred square miles in area, and believe the lithophytes' labour to be a sufficient cause, it requires a credulity as to Nature's workings such as commonly existed before the time of Bacon, and even that of Boyle, but which has since been rebuked by experimental philosophy. Soundings made by Beechey, Flinders, and others, show that depths of two and three hundred feet of water sometimes occur near the raised reef, within the enclosure of lagoonislands, whilst outside the depth is often unfathomable. Wilkes found no bottom with a line of 150 fathoms (900 feet) at that distance from the perpendicular cliffs of Aurora Island; and Dana says that within three-quarters of a mile from the southern point of the island of Clermont Tonnere, the lead brought up suddenly at 350 fathoms (2,100 feet) and then dropped off again and descended to 600 fathoms (3,600 feet) without reaching bottom. The lagoons within the circular reefs are, however, generally shallow in comparison, and a great depth inside is exceptional.

In the Indian Ocean and Coral Sea still deeper soundings have been made than those mentioned. Dr. Maury ('Physical Geography of the Sea ') quotes a letter from Mr. Brooke stating that the sounding-rod reached bottom in the Indian Ocean with a line of 7,040 fathoms (42,240 feet). It must, however, be observed that the length of line does not always express the perpendicular distance, as there is always a driftage of the line, sometimes a very great one. Maury mentions a specimen of the bed of the Coral Sea brought up with Brooke's soundingrod at a reported depth of 2,150 fathoms,-two miles and a half.

Mr. Cheever, in his volume on Hawaii,* has given an interesting chapter on the subject of coral formations. He reasons that as some of the reefs, lagoons, and islands of coral

Life in the Sandwich Islands; or, the Heart of the Pacific,' &c. By the Rev. H. T. Cheever. London, 1851.

GALVANO-ELECTRIC THEORY.

515

rock rise from the sea-bottom at an unfathomable depth, to the conditional height required for the lithophytes to work, the lower portion or foundation must be produced by different and independent causes; and he seeks such agencies in sudden submarine galvanic action, sufficient to separate from the water of the ocean and deposit ridges and piles composed of lime and other substances existing in sea water in enormous quantities, and so universally diffused as to be ever at hand for any purpose. Giving full weight to the amount of material combined with or in solution in the water of the depths of ocean, it is, nevertheless, difficult to conceive a single voltaic action (and it must be single or the effect would not follow) sufficiently strong to raise from the bottom a ridge of separated lime many thousand feet in height, and having a base wide enough to support such a superstructure. As an auxiliary argument Mr. Cheever quotes the opinion of another missionary in the South Seas, Mr. Williams, who puts forward a theory that the calcareous coverings of marine molluscs are not necessarily secreted by the animals themselves, but suggests that they only secrete a sort of gluten, to which calcareous particles in the water adhere, and form a shell. Mr. Williams had probably in his thoughts the common caddis worms found in fresh water. Mr. Cheever goes on to say :-'Let there be a chemical precipitation of the minute calcareous particles floating in sea-water, by any means, and there might be formed a reef-agreeably to the experiment in which the passing of a stream of electric fluid through water having calcareous and siliceous particles in solution produces stone. The lightning in tropical regions, and the electric fluid engendered by submarine and other volcanoes which abound in the South Seas, may thus produce an effect adequate to the formation of those wonderful and invaluable structures. This is a much more rational theory to account for the existence of immense coral reefs and coral islands in the Pacific than that alluded to above, which supposes them wholly the work of saxigenous polypes or lithophytes.'

We need not commit ourselves to the lightning theory, or to