420 J. STANLEY GARDINER. 



APPENDIX C. 



Concluding Remarks and Notes. 



In concluding my account of the Coral Reefs of the Maldives, the investigation of which 

 was the main object of my expedition to that Archipelago, it is fitting that I should state 

 and acknowledge the personal help and assistance I have received. 



In the first place I would express my great indebtedness to all my teachers and 

 colleagues in the Zoological Laboratory at Cambridge. It would be invidious were I to 

 mention any name besides that of Mr Adam Sedgwick, to whose constant sympathy is 

 mainly due any merit that my investigations may have. In particular I am obliged to him 

 for reading over Chapters V. — Vii. of this Paper and for much most valuable and suggestive 

 criticism. 



To the expert knowledge of Adm. Sir W. Wharton, Chief Hydrographer, Sir John 

 Mun'ay, and Mr J. Y. Buchanan I owe much. The first gave me most valuable advice as 

 to navigation, seasons, etc. from which I drew up my itinerary, besides lending me many 

 valuable instruments. I have had on three occasions the advantage of "thrashing out" the 

 question of Coral Reef Formation with Sir John Murray. I am pleased that ray investi- 

 gations in the main support his theory, a result which I did not consider probable when 

 I left home for the Maldives. 



Prof. Hickson, Prof. Judd, Prof. Herdman, Mr W. T. Blanford and other experts have 

 given me valuable help in considering various points. They will find replies to some of 

 their criticisms in Appendix A. With my companions on the Expedition, Mr L. A. Borradaile 

 and Mr Forster Cooper, I have discussed most points that have arisen, and the former has 

 read through my manuscript. To those gentlemen, who are so kindly working out my 

 collections, I would express my sincerest gratitude ; the results of the Expedition would be 

 of little value without their aid. 



I account it a great good-fortune that I have been followed both in Fiji and in the 

 Maldives by Prof Alex. Agassiz, the greatest and most experienced authority on all questions 

 connected with Coral Reefs. I am greatly obliged to him for allowing me to discuss their 

 formation with him on several occasions previous to his visit to the Maldives. My work 

 dealing mainly with the surface waters (down to 50 fathoms) will, I trust, form a complement 

 to his deeper-water investigations. I have tried to give all the facts without prejudice, but 

 no doubt at least some of my views may have to be modified. In particular the occurrence 

 of manganese nodules in the deeper waters of the Maldives is a fact of no small interest 

 as bearing on the probable character of the foundation rock on which the group has been 

 built. 



No doubt Prof. Agassiz's full account will shortly be published, but I may be permitted 

 to quote the summary of his soundings between the banks'. " Our soundings showed a 

 greatest depth of 2.51 fathoms in the center of Gallandu Channel, which separates Ihavan- 

 diffulu from Tiladumonati ; 769 fathoms in the center of the channel between Miladummadulu 

 and Fadiffolu." " We found 302 fathoms between Goidu (Horsburgh atoll) and South 



1 Amer. Jour. Sci. aer. 4, vol. 13, pp. 300-1 (1902). 



