Show GREAT BARRIER LURES SAVANTS vast submarine reef of coral off australia prepared Prep by national Nn llon Goo graphic society washington D C service Ser lc F THE sea went dry along the IF east coast of queensland a thousand miles of coral maze would be revealed the great barrier neet of australia must not be imagined as a continuous structure like the cheat wall of china it Is formed ily innumerable reefs and a map of just one section resembles a complex jigsaw jig saw puzzle then there are the isles mountainous and forested of the inner zone and the and cays that are true coral islands for nearly a century the great car bar rier has intrigued science by the problems that it hresc presents lits to geologists tild ind naturalists natura lists it has lured such masters of marine zoology as alexander agassiz and ae AG slayer from america and recently a brit british h expedition broke camp after a year rear on captain cooks first coral island in all the file seven seas there Is nothing so wonderful as this vast rine curtain of coral the largest coral reef in the wor world id who whose e nature and origin remain half veiled in mis tery tourists from many lands and thou sands of australians have made the voyage through alias grand canal the area between the mainland with its purple hills bills and th the outer bartl Parr lr ar A calm and pleasant trip during a portion of the year it may be perilous in the cyclone season many launches and fishing craft have been wrecked among the coral or gone down in the heart of a storm within the barrier but navigation Is no longer the nightmare it was to the early voyagers before the leer mazes had been mapped and r routes safe for even large vessels discovered danger exists still but the old fear has gone the haunting fear of disaster in the realm of coral surf Is amazing spectacle majestic is the meeting of rollers of the lie ocean and the groat great carrier barrier on days when ullen the sun lit water behind the coral bastion Is calm enough tor for a canoe mountainous waves pound the reefs unceasingly the surf on the outer harrier barrier at dizh tide when the broad reefs crests are hidden presents an amazing spectacle A long line of boiling surf springing up in id mid ocean without any apparent cause Is the late charles description that great naturalist whose knon knowledge ledge of the harrier barrier was unrivaled devoted the last few years of his hia life to the study of its problems swain reefs far south mark the beginning of the great carrier barrier outer system farther north the linear reefs are arc developed they are some miles in length and up to half a mile across with broad separating channels A lighthouse on lady elliot islet marks the sout southern bern limit of coral formed land a broad platform of solid coral half a mile in circumference then comes an archipelago the bunker group fol followed lomed by the capricorn group popular now of naturalists natura lists and almost a picnic ground for hollday makers from the mainland within the tropics the maze Is multiplied ti from a hill at cooktown Cook town you may see as captain cook did in 1770 the shadows of the coral reefs wherever you look out to sen sea the navigator who nho explored 2000 miles of the e east a st coast of australia was 1 ignorant borant of the existence of coral in those waters when his chiy ship struck on endear our reet reef at night had the weather been stormy she must have been lost for coral tangs fangs had pierced her hull bull but calm sea enabled the r sailors to patch up the bark by fo and cook sailed her to the beach for careening and repairs meanwhile gazing from the hilltop hlll top he be discovered the coral with a seaworthy ship again he won a way out of the maze gaining open ocean through one of the great openings in the barrier lie he escaped many dangers only to meet with others afew a few days later I 1 the endeavour becalmed oft off the outer barrier was borne toward the reef S she he ros rose C at last on a hu huge ge wave and seemed doomed doornen to destruction with only the breadth of a wave between her and the coral but a light air of wind spruel up and the ship was saved cook claimed the coast captain cook sought eagerly for an opening and found his providential channel lie he was la in the grand canal once more and with infinite care took the bark to torres strait landing on an island which lie he fumed mimed slon blon lie he claimed the whole eastern coast of australia for britain in the name of king george III A memorial to captain cook has been erected on possession island by the federal government ern ment a simple obelise bearing a tablet of bronze bligh commander of the bounty and his eighteen men who were faith ful made that memorable open boat voyage from tahitian waters to lies iles lorntson lorn tion island within the great carrier barrier in 1780 the rs vict victims lins reached the reef at midnight or rath er came within sound of the surf and two days later found a passage to safety the boat voyage was contin along the east coast of queens land and through torres strait to timor these oe od dillile A mi are arc discussed wit tl fit an aralia aal iii round rt und the campfire campf lre on a coral isle the talk may turn from cooks discoveries and blight amazing boat voyage to the recent loss of a launch or the fate of a large steamer sunk in a cyclone within a few miles of the mainland the grand canal varies in width from 20 to 80 miles there are two regions however the inner one Is 3 narrow and fairly free from the perils which make the c uter outer zone impossible for shipping only small craft are navigated among the reefs of the outer zone buggers are sailed along the eban chan nets nels with coral fangs threatening destruction st sailed balled often where the reefs are uncharted in the quest for sea slugs lues and tearl oearl and shell shelf japanese jn on many of these venturesome craft many beautiful islands the depth of the sea outside the great farrier barrier is profound but in the zone where coastal steamers go safely it varies from about ten fathoms to twenty the outer zone Is much deeper up to seventy fathoms I 1 it Is between these two zones that the mountainous islands lie ile many of them beautiful and some the homes of happy people over hundreds of miles of spa they are strung close together or with long iong gaps between thousands of folk who make the winter inter tour to queensland from southern ports say they have been to the great harrier barrier reef whereas th they ey have merely sailed among the lofty islands haibe maibe without landing even on an atoll or a cay the low coral isles beyond the high ones of granite only the few who go north venture to seek the actual harrier barrier where that tong long lone of thundering surf rises in mid ocean there Is charm in the grand canal trip and tire life Is pleasant on the favored islands where a bungalow may nestle amid tropical fruit trees and palms with a creek singing near on its little journey to the sea men have lived half a lifetime on a carrier barrier reef isle without desire to wander it may he be a lotus eating life or one of healthy work and play as you please rich men and poor men are lured to the region beach combers are rare now yet here and there one meets mith alith the cheerful loafer who takes to a task only at the urge of sheer necessity spain though played her part in loneer navigation of australasian seas in cigoi three ships under admiral de naw GUIN A iq A 1 T aa A J C 1 au at R I 1 LIA ell the great barrier reef Q quiros biros sailed tor for the south pacific from callao the captain of one was luls luis de torres whose na name e lives between forever as that of the strait between australia and new guinea ills vesi set sel became separated from the other two and torres was as probably the first european to sight cape york P peninsula enin the northernmost point of australia and prince of wales island cut but torres discovery was a secret from the world until 1762 when among the archives at manila the record of his great voyage was found by the british Crl tish they gave honor where tt it was due naming the strait a after its discoverer explored by scientists scientific investigation of the great carrier barrier reef began when H M S fly cruised in the coral cora sea and other waters tier rier voyage extended over several years 1812 1842 and J beete jukes was the naturalist on board her a geologist whose interests were not confined to rocks jukes wrote the first description of the great carrier barrier which remains one of the best general accounts we have of this geographical wonder the great carrier barrier reefs are thus found to form a long submarine buttress or curtain along the northeastern coast of australia rising in general precipitously from a very great depth but resting towards the north on the ground of torres strait and towards the south on the bank stretching off from sandy cape it if it were to be laid dry this grea great t carrier barrier would be found to have a considerable sid erable resemblance to a gigantic and irregular fortification a steep glacis crowned with fl a broken parapet wall and carried from one rising ground to another the babu ous of projecting and detached reefs would increase this resemblance captain cooks lou of a coral reef forgotten by all perhaps but readers of the great navigators voy Is worth quoting A reef such as one speaks ol 01 of f here Is scarcely known in europe it Is a wall of coral rock rising almost perpendicularly out of the unfathomable ocean always over at high water generally gem Cene rally 7 or 8 feet and dry in places at low water the largo large waves of the vast ocean meeting with will so stid sudden it re resistance si stance makes it a most terrible surf breaking mountains 1110 |