1899] 



FUNAFUTI: THE STUDY OF A CORAL ATOLL 



29 



and there with huge boulders of coral rock some tons in weight. 1 At 

 low water this desolate region is dry and burns in the sun, but as the 

 tide rises sea- water oozes up through holes in the ground and covers 

 it with shallow pools. Few animals live in this desert ; spiders, 

 that infest the " Nya " trees, and mosquitoes, that lie greedily in wait 

 by day as well as night, are the chief that I bear in mind. Pro- 

 ceeding lengthwise along this plain, which lies in the middle of the 

 island, it broadens out and passes into a muddy swamp, planted by 

 the natives with taro, a delicious substitute for potatoes, and bananas, 

 which one still reflects upon with pleasure ; their fruit was our 





Fig. 8. — Hdiopora in the foreground, Forties beyond the Mangrove Swamp, Funafuti. 



chief luxury, and we willingly paid for it at the somewhat exorbitant 

 price of four fathoms of calico a bunch. 



Farther on beyond the plantation, the depression becomes still 

 wider, forming an extensive flat, partly margined by mangrove trees 

 and Hibiscus; this was known to us as the mangrove swamp (Fig. 8). 

 It is an interesting corner of the-island. The floor represents the upper 

 surface of a deal coral reef, composed partly of great masses of Porites ; 

 their flattened summits, standing some 8 or 10 inches above the floor, 

 give them the appearance of a row of stepping-stones, and mark what 

 was the level of low tide at the time the reef was living. 2 Eadiating 

 from these blocks as from a nucleus are vertical plates of the " blue 



1 One of these measured 6 feet by 5 feet by 4 feet. 



2 The last episode in the history of the island appears to have been a slight elevation of 

 some four or five feet : at least I was led to this conclusion from evidence furnished by the 

 "dead reef" of the mangrove swamp, by the "sea-stacks" or pinnacles of coral-rag of the 

 tidal platform, and by the steep cliffs which in some of the islets border the lagoon. 



