400 



area of denudation is always compensated for by a neighbouring area 

 of building. 



2) The reasons why Murray's theory of Solution will 

 not explain the origin of the atoll. 



The reasons are numerous, for the theory is faulty from beginning 

 to end. 



It has to be explained why, when solution may develop an atoll 

 lagoon, it will not much more readily dissolve the bank on which the 

 atoll is situated. For Murray has shown that the powers for solution 

 increase with the depth. 



It is everywhere to be seen that deposition of calcium carbonate 

 takes place in the lagoon area, and that coral sand is constantly being 

 accumulated in the lagoon. 



It has to be explained why banks below the sea are already basin- 

 shaped for none of Murr ay s arguments apply to these submarine 

 lagoons. The features of atolls (the undermining of coconut palms, and 

 the situation of the islands on the lagoon edge of the reef) which 

 Murray relied on as demonstrating the workings of Solution are the 

 results of entirely different causes. 



The arguments of the Theory of Solution are fallacious, and the 

 method of its investigation erroneous. No feature of a completed atoll, 

 no stage of a developing atoll, and no picture in the closing scenes of 

 the story of a mature atoll demonstrates its workings, or is explained 

 by its suppositions. In Cocos-Keeling lagoon are large areas occupied 

 by dead coral, killed in 1876, and these dead corals are standing intact 

 after 30 years exposure to the effects of sulution. The many fanciful 

 embroideries that have been ai3pended to the original theory by Stanley 

 Gardiner do not conceal the poverty of the original fabric but rather 

 accentuate it. 



3) The Funafuti bore has added nothing to the knowledge of the 

 method of atoll formation, — except perhaps that atolls grow outwards 

 on their own talus slopes. The bore was driven on the windward side 

 of a bank ten miles across, and if the original bank had advanced only 

 half a mile to windward in its whole life-history, the bore in such a site 

 must have necessarily been confined to this talus slope. 



4) Suggestions put forward by the Author to explain the 

 development of Coral structures. As an outcome of observations 

 made on the Cocos-Keeling atoll, it is suggested that the process of 

 "Sedimentation" takes the largest share in the production of most of 

 the stages of an atoll's history. The bed of the open ocean is composed 

 of matter that has fallen from the surface; sedimentation is always 

 taking place all over the ocean. In certain places, sometimes owing 



