Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/443

Rh ports, who had much to say about the advantages of his part of the colony, and greatly regretted that they had not been able to visit it.

"It's a pity," said he, "that you missed the Great Barrier Reef, which is one of the most remarkable geographical and geological phenomena to be found anywhere on the globe. It stretches along the whole eastern coast from opposite Port Bowen, in latitude 23°, to Torres Strait, at the extreme north of Queensland, and is one thousand two hundred miles long. Its greatest width, which is near its southern end, is about seventy miles, and it is from five to one hundred miles from the shore of the continent. All along its whole length there are sunken reefs, which make navigation in its vicinity very dangerous. Many a ship has been lost on this reef, and scores or hundreds of persons have found a watery grave by its side."

Fred asked if a ship inside the reef was obliged to go its entire length before finding an opening to the ocean.

"Not at all," was the reply. "There are many openings to the ocean through the reef, some of them very narrow and others several miles in width; and the reef contains specimens of all kinds of coral formation—atolls, fringing reefs, and others. The portion of the reef above water, and the numerous coral islands near it, are thought to have an aggregate surface of thirty thousand miles."

"What is supposed to have caused the formation of this reef?" Frank inquired.

"The outer margin of the Great Barrier Reef probably indicates the former coast-line of this part of Australia," was the reply. "This was fringed with coral reefs; but as the land sank, the coral animals continued to build upward to the level of the sea, and thus a great ridge was formed which was broken and heaped up by the waves of the Pacific. Fresh water prevents the formation of coral, and the openings in the Great Barrier Reef are thus formed by the fresh-water streams. The largest is opposite the mouth of the Burdekin River, which drains a considerable area of country.

"The reef is a good place for sport, just as are the reefs of the Feejee, Samoan, and Society Islands, which you tell me you have visited. Vessels go there in search of beche-de-mer, for which they have a good market in China. The fishery for this curious article of food is practically just the same as in the island groups of the Pacific, and therefore I need not describe it to you.

"Very good sport can be had in Northern Queensland in hunting the dugong, or sea-cow. This animal abounds along the coast of that