Rhode Island American And Providence Gazette

A Sixth Continent.—An extraordinary phenomenon presented in the southern ocean, may render our settlement in N. South Wales of still more eminent importance.—A sixth continent is in the very act of growth before our eyes! The Pacific is spotted with islands through the immense space of nearly fifty degrees of longitude, "and as many of latitude. Every one of these islands seems to be merely a central spot for the formation of coral banks, which by a perpetual progress, are rising from the unfathomable depths of the sea. The union of a few of these masses of rock, shapes itself into an island: the seeds of plants are carried to it by birds or by the waves, and from the moment that it overtops the waters, it is covered with vegetation. The new islands constitute in its turn a centre of growth to another circle. The great powers of nature appear to be still in peculiar activity in this region; and to her tardier recess she sometimes takes the assistance of the volcano and the earthquake. From the south of the New Zealand to the north of the Sandwich Islands the waters absolutely teem with those future seats of civilization. Still the coral insect, diminutive builders of all these mighty piles, is at work: the ocean is intersected with myriads of those lines of foundation; and when the rocky structure shall have excluded the sea, then will come the dominion of man.—Monthly Review.