SOME SHOAL-WATER CORALS FROM MURRAY ISLAND 



(AUSTRALIA), COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS, AND 



FANNING ISLAND. 



INTRODUCTION. 

 The following statement is intended to show the relations which the 

 present memoir bears to other researches on which I have been and still am 

 engaged, and to serve as an introduction both to this paper and to others 

 which are expected to follow in rather rapid succession, as the manuscripts 

 for several volumes are now almost ready for press. 



The studies, which I began in 1892 on the Tertiary corals of the United 

 States and the Caribbean area, had several objects, including: (1) the descrip- 

 tion of the successive coral faunas for the aid they might render in geologic 

 correlation; (2) the tracing of the relations between the successive faunas in 

 the hope that information might be obtained on their evolution; (3) considera- 

 tion of the ecology of the faunas for the light which might be thrown on the 

 conditions, especially those of depth and temperature, under which the sedi- 

 ments in which they are embedded were deposited. It soon became evident 

 that to understand properly the fossil faunas of the areas mentioned it was 

 necessary to study those now living in the western Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf 

 of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. Most of the papers listed on pages 60-61, 

 which were published between 1894 and 1905, resulted from my efforts to 

 accumulate and record information on these subjects. 



As the investigations progressed, it became more and more obvious 

 that, to give my geologic deductions a firmer foundation, I should further 

 extend my systematic knowledge of living coral faunas and should study 

 more critically the relations of the faunas to environmental factors. I 

 therefore welcomed the opportunities offered by Mr. Alexander Agassiz to 

 report on collections made in the Pacific by the Albatross, while under his 

 direction, and by Professor C. H. Gilbert to report on the Madreporaria 

 from the Hawaiian Islands and Laysan. These collections were supple- 

 mented by that portion of a collection made in 1904 by Dr. Charles Gravier 

 in French Somaliland, which could be safely transported to the United 

 States. The papers which resulted from the study of these Pacific collections 

 and the associated problems were published between 1905 and 1910. Their 

 titles are given in the bibliography, page 61. 



In 1907 Dr. Alfred G. Mayer invited me to undertake investigations 

 of the corals along the Florida coral-reef tract in connection with the Marine 

 Biological Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. This invi- 

 tation was submitted to the chief geologist of the U. S. Geological Survey, 

 and was accepted on a cooperative basis, which was that facilities for field 

 work should be furnished by the Marine Biological Laboratory, and that 



s« 



