In the South Pacific there is a perfect absence of coral-reefs at the Galapagos and along the whole of the west coast of the New Continent, notwithstanding their vicinity to the numerous Atolls of the Low Islands, and the Archipelago of Mendaña or the Marquesas. It is true that the current of the South Pacific, which washes the coasts of Chili and Peru. (and whose low temperature I observed in the year 1802,) is only 60°.1 Fahr., while the undisturbed water at the sides of the cold current is from 81°.5 to 83°.7 Fahr. at Punta Parima, where it deflects to the west. Moreover at the Galapagos there are small currents between the islands, having a temperature of only 58°.3 Fahr. But this lower temperature does not prevail further northwards along the coasts of the Pacific from Guayaquil to Guatimala and Mexico, neither does it prevail in the Cape de Verd Islands, on the whole west coast of Africa, or at the small islands of St. Paul, St. Helena, Ascension, and San Fernando Noronha; yet in none of these are there coral-reefs. If this absence of reefs characterises the _western_ coasts of America, Africa, and New Holland, they are, on the other hand, of frequent occurrence on the _eastern_ coasts of tropical America, on the African coast of Zanzibar, and on the southern coast of New South Wales. The best opportunities I have enjoyed for personally examining coral banks have been in the Gulf of Mexico, and south of the Island of Cuba, in the so-called “Gardens of the King and Queen” (_Jardines y Jardinillos del Rey y de la Reyna_). It was Christopher Columbus himself who, on his second voyage, in May, 1494, gave this name to this little group of islands, because from the pleasant association of the silver-leaved arborescent Tournefortia gnapholoides, of flowering species of Dolichos, of Avicennia nitida, and mangrove-thickets (Rhizophora), the coral-islands formed as it were an archipelago of floating gardens. “_Son Cayos verdes y graciosos llenos de arboledas_,” says the admiral. On my voyage from Batabano to Trinidad de Cuba, I remained for several days in these gardens, which lie to the east of the great Isle of Pines, abounding in mahogany, for the purpose of determining the longitude of the different _Cayos_.