378 J. STANLEY GARDINER. 



and finer towards the centre of the lagoon, formed mainly of coral fragments, but containing 

 also Halimeda remains, bottom-living Foraminifera and a few shells of pelagic animals. 



Goidu island lies with its eastern side right on the reef-flat, which off it approximates to 

 that of the east side of Minikoi near Mou-Rambu Point (p. 40), being about 50 yards in breadth 

 from the base of the beach with two ill-defined terraces and studded all over with pinnacles and 

 masses of the elevated coral rock. The beach behind is mainly formed of the solid rock, slightly 

 overlaid with loose stones. It is the outer edge of a rocky belt of land, about 70 yards broad 

 by 4 — 5 feet above the high tide level, which behind merges into the sand forming the rest of 

 the island. The latter area averages 2\ feet above the high tide limit, but a small mangrove 

 swamp exists behind the northern half of the rocky belt. To the north the latter continues out 

 into a point on the boulder zone, and to the south masses of rock on and inside the same zone 

 show that it was once joined up to two rocky islets, Raburi and Masilokolu. The rocky land, 

 wherever exposed, shows some slight loss, but the latter is more marked in two bays that have 

 formed to the south and north of Goidu, in which there is some fallen timber. These are 

 separated from the lagoon by two very prominent points of the land, on which the sand from 

 the two bays appears to be piled up so that they are, if anything, growing out along the 

 encircling reef of the atoll. The west or lagoon side of the island has a broad sandy beach with 

 no rook, and exhibits no marked change of any sort. 



Fehendu extends almost east and west for about \\ miles. It is formed entirely of sand, 

 and lies to the west about 100 yards and to the east about 400 yards behind the boulder zone. 

 To the north or seaward side the whole shore is studded with lines of beach sandstone which 



Fig. 91. The reef to the N.E. of Furudu at half tide, looking seaward. The washing away of the land is well seen 

 in the fallen coconut tree and the conspicuous line of beach sandstone extending out from the laud. 



generally are separated by areas of loose sand. Often, however, the lower terraces lie on the 

 sand-flat quite beyond the slope of the beach, in one place eight separate terraces having been 

 found. The west end of the island is pointed, and the loss in this half is shown on both sides 

 by a cliflF with fallen bushes at the top of each beach. At the extreme west point a sand-spit 

 stretches out for 50 yards with a number of sandstone masses along its seaward side and off its 



