MAYOR— THE REEFS OF TUTUILA, SAMOA. 225 



corals. As this shore bench is identical in elevation in these sepa- 

 rated islands of differing ages and histories, Daly is justified in 

 the inference that it indicates a relatively recent subsidence of sea 

 level rather than an elevation of the Islands. Indeed a relatively 

 recent emergence of about 8 feet above high tide level is shown by 

 the Atolls of the Paumotos, and Ellis Groups, as well as by the 

 islands in Torres Straits, and the southern shore of Papua in the 

 region of Port Moresby. It appears also in the Florida Keys and 

 the Bahamas, and A. Agassiz, 1903, Proc. Royal Soc. London, Vol. 

 71, p. 413, says that "Throughout the Pacific, the Indian Ocean, 

 and the West Indies the most positive evidence exists of a moderate 



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Fig. I. Tutuila, American Samoa. Showing fringing reef now growing 

 around the Island in places where the submarine slopes are not too steep. 



recent elevation of the coal reefs." Indeed Daly records a mod- 

 erate recent emergence of the land along many thousand miles of 

 coast line not only in the tropical, but also in colder regions. 



In the volcanic islands of American Samoa there are no traces 

 of elevated coral reefs, or limestones except small fragments thrown 

 up by volcanic action and imbedded in ejected volcanic ash as at 

 Aunuu, or in a crater rim south of Logatala Hill, Tutuila, or each 

 of Faleasau Village on Tau Island. 



No corals or limestones are found imbedded in or resting upon 

 the emerged shore bench around Tutuila ; nor were any ancient 

 corals tossed up by stems on the beaches of the inner parts of the 



