162 J. STANLEY GARDINER. 
to the north and a sandy island to the south, with pinnacles along its east side; its lagoon 
is 8 fathoms deep. The other has a line of rocks along its east and south sides, really 
elongated islets without vegetation; its lagoon is 54 fathoms deep. 
Of the islets on the reefs of the west rim all are situated towards the inside of the 
reef and are of sand formation with 
the exceptions of Cooper Island on 
the Wa Faro reef (fig. 29) and 
Kandu-Gandu. In speaking of the 
former island the natives term it 
“hura,” a name applied to any large 
mass of rock, standing on a reef, 
washed over by tides of exceptional 
height, such as the islands of 
Berriam. However, Cooper Island 
(fig. 29) has now become covered with 
coconut and pandanus trees, shrubs, 
&e. The method by which the sea has 
been shut off from it is clear. The 
waves and tides began to eat into Fie, 29. Wa Faro, showing Cooper Island (rock) to the west and 
its sides with the result that small Wa Island (sand) to the south-east. (Soundings in fathoms.) 
masses gradually got broken off and 
were deposited round the rock as a wall. Between them a little sand found a resting-place, 
with fragments of pumice, &c. Occasionally at first a higher tide would break through this 
rampart, and strew its masses over the whole surface of the land for some distance from the 
sea. Rain action eroded the surface and dissolved out masses of coral, so that the ground even 
in the centre of the island became covered with loose stones. Sand, further, was blown 
into the centre, and thus the land was made suitable for plants. The island at the present 
day is washing away on all sides except perhaps to the east, where a spit of small stones 
has been heaped up for 336 yards out from the beach; here the waves round the island 
meet one another and, after forming an eddy, pass on over the reef. The island to the 
west has now a broad reef-flat with numerous masses of limestone, its inner part against 
the land forming a rough zone like that to the south-east of Minikoi. South and north 
the reef has the same characters, but on all sides there is a broad flat outside the 
outermost pinnacles, the greater part of which has probably been formed by the outgrowth 
of the reef subsequent to the elevation of the land. The rock also stretched to some 
degree along the sides of the faro, but there was no heaping up of sand between its 
horns as on the east side of the bank, The reason of this is probably because of the 
exposed position of the reef as compared with those of the east rim, and perhaps also to 
a lesser original height of the rocky area, on this side the limestone being seldom more 
than 6 feet above the low tide limit, 

The limestone throughout North Mahlos is similar to that found at Minikoi, but it 
has in its composition more sand and broken fragments, fewer large coral masses, and 
fewer nullipores. Many of the corals in the limestone being entire and absolutely in the 
positions im which they were originally growing, there can be no question in respect to the 
elevation. The change of level would seem to have been less than at Minikoi by a few 
