An atoll consists essentially of a ring of coral rocks but little elevated above the level of the sea, and having in its centre a lagoon or salt-water lake, which generally communicates by a deep narrow channel with the sea. The ring of rocks is flat on the surface, which is composed of friable soil, and sustains a luxuriant vegetation, chiefly of cocoa-nut palms. It is seldom more than half a mile in breadth between the sea and lagoon, sometimes only three or four hundred yards. The outer margin of the ring is the highest, and it slopes gradually down towards the lagoon; but on the outside of the ledge of rocks is a beach of dazzling whiteness, composed of powdered and broken coral and shells. The appearance they present is thus not less beautiful than singular. Some of these islands are of large size, from thirty to fifty miles long, and from twenty to thirty broad, but they are in general considerably smaller. Their most frequent form is either round or oval. The rocks composing them are all formed by different species of coral. The animal which constructs them is of the polyp tribe, and so small that it can be seen only under the higher powers of the microscope. It multiplies by means of buds like those of a tree, the individuals all combining to form a composite stony mass, which is called a polypidom. A number of such polypidoms growing close together form a coral reef. See woodcuts. [Illustration: Coral] [Illustration: Coral Polyp] It was at one time supposed that these coral reefs were erected on the edges of the craters of submarine volcanoes, an opinion to which their annular form, and the lagoon in the centre, lent some countenance; but the vast size of some of them, united to several other particulars connected with them, threw great doubts over this supposition. More recently it has been shown by Mr. Darwin that, while volcanic agency does perform a part in their formation, it is different from what had been formerly imagined. His supposition is, that these coral reefs were built round the coasts of islands which had once stood very much higher above water than they do now. He conceives that the bottom of the sea under them being very volcanic, and containing large collections of molten lava beneath a thin solid crust, the islands have gradually sunk down into the lava, until their central parts have become covered with a considerable depth of water. The central parts thus submerged, he imagines, form the lagoons in the middle of the islands, while the ring of coral reefs has gradually grown upwards, as the ground on which it rested sank downwards. [Illustration: Coral Reef.]