1899] FUNAFUTI: THE STUDY OF A CORAL ATOLL 35 



was seldom the custom of this folk ; wherever it is met with it may be 

 taken to indicate the influence of black blood. So far as we know 

 cannibals are almost always black people. 



Returning to the boring party, which we left busily engaged. For 

 nearly three weeks they worked by shifts continuously night and day, but 

 at the end of that time, when the bore-hole was only 105 feet deep, their 

 most arduous efforts failed to advance it further. The difficulties 

 opposed by the nature of the ground — a mixture of flowing sand and 

 obdurate boulders — were such that neither the good-will of the workmen 

 nor the ingenuity of Ayles, the foreman, could contend against them, 

 and there was no alternative but to abandon the undertaking. 



Thinking that there might be a better prospect of success on the 

 ocean side of the reef, we determined to make a fresh attempt there, 

 and in two days, without the help of wheels and in a country without 

 roads, we succeeded in transporting the bulk of our twenty-five tons of 

 machinery across the island to a fresh site. The new boring commenced 

 in hard rock and at first deepened rapidly. Before long, however, it 

 entered a mixture of sand and boulders similar to that we had previously 

 encountered, and after attaining a depth of 72 feet further progress be- 

 came impossible. We left the island on 30th July, and on reaching Fiji 

 had the mortification to learn that we had passed on the way a ship coming 

 to our assistance with a fresh supply of machinery, which our friends 

 in Sydney had promptly despatched on hearing of our difficulties. 



Our attempt to penetrate the reef had proved a failure, but it 

 was not wholly without result. It had revealed the nature of the 

 material with which any subsequent attempts at boring would have to 

 contend, and it had added one more surprise to the history of atolls, 

 for no one had suspected that for a depth of over 100 feet the island 

 would be found to consist of more sand than coral, or in other words, 

 that the organisms which play the chief part in the construction of a 

 coral reef are not corals, but Foraminifera ! 



The expedition had other objects in view besides boring. The 

 next in importance was the investigation of the atoll by sounding. 

 This was accomplished with complete success by Captain Field. Other 

 atolls had been sounded before, but never before had an atoll been 

 sounded with such accuracy and completeness as was Funafuti on this 

 occasion. The form of the floor of the lagoon was made more exactly 

 known than that of most lakes in the British Isles. The slopes of the 

 flanks of the atoll were determined in four different directions, approxi- 

 mately at right angles to each other and running about N., S., E., and W. 

 A study of these enables us to frame a clear picture of the general 

 form of the atoll. It is a conical mountain with an oval base situated 

 at a depth of about 2000 fathoms, measuring 30 miles in length by 

 28 in breadth. It rises at first with a very gentle slope but gradually 

 grows steeper as it ascends (Fig. 13), till at a depth of 400 or 500 fathoms 

 it begins to present precipitous faces, and above 130 to 140 fathoms is 



