Читать книгу The Circle of Knowledge: A Classified, Simplified, Visualized Book of Answers - Various - Страница 86

Coral islands are among the most striking phenomena of the tropical seas. Whitsunday Island in the midst of the Pacific is an excellent example. Rising but a few feet above the surface of the ocean, it forms a narrow, unbroken, nearly circular ring, surrounding a central lagoon of quiet water. When first seen, it presents the aspects of an angry surf breaking on a white beach of coral sand, in strong contrast with the deep blue color of the sea. Behind this a garland of luxuriant vegetation, whose tropical beauty, enhanced by the noble cocoa-palm encircles the quiet waters of the lagoon, while all around spreads the broad blue sea.

TWO OF THE GREATEST MARVELS OF LAND AND SEA

THE GRAND CANYON OF THE COLORADO RIVER, ARIZONA

This greatest of nature’s gorges is more than twelve miles across, a mile deep, and extends over two hundred miles in length. This whole vast space has been sculptured by the wear of the river through countless centuries. Its unparalleled magnitude, its architectural forms and suggestions, and its wealth of color effects create a picture that is grand beyond description.

THE BARRIER CORAL REEF OF AUSTRALIA

This vast reef of coral islands was built by a colony of coral insects, or polyps, as innumerable as the stars of the Milky Way. It rose from the floor of the ocean, builded out of myriads upon myriads of the dead skeletons of these marvellous insects.