1899] FUNAFUTI: THE STUDY OF A CORAL ATOLL 19 



black, they showed less favour to strangers, and the islands sometimes 

 became the theatre of bloody strife. 



Besides man, whose presence is an additional problem of the 

 islands, no other mammals are indigenous, their place being taken by 

 various land crabs and spiders of many kinds. 



An examination of the rocks of a low island reveals another 

 singular feature : save for a few fragments of pumice, brought from 

 distant volcanoes by sea-currents and cast by the waves upon the 

 strand, they present us with but one kind of material, carbonate of 

 lime, which has been extracted from solution in the sea, and built up 

 into a diversity of solid forms by the agency of organisms, — plants and 

 animals, of which the most conspicuous are corals. Thus but one 

 kind of rock enters into the constitution of the island, — and this is 

 limestone : of granite, slate, sandstone, clay, such as we are familiar 

 with at home, there is none : all is limestone, whatever you see ! 



The interest of this fact is enhanced by another. Repeated investi- 

 gation has proved that the island is not merely a residuum, a mortuary 

 of calcareous organisms, but that it is still alive and in active growth. 

 A profusion of gaily tinted corals forms reefs within the lagoon, and 

 the whole of the shelving platform, which descends from the surf to 

 a distance of 20 or 30 fathoms below the sea, is alive with them: 

 this platform is indeed the true growing surface of the island. 



Corals, by reason of their considerable size and brilliant colours, 

 first attract the attention of the observer, and hence, although numerous 

 other kinds of creatures collaborate with the corals in the construction 

 of the reef, these islands are known not only as " low " islands and 

 " lagoon " islands, but also as " coral " islands, or more particularly as 

 " coral atolls." 



The remarkable discovery that coral atolls consist of the re- 

 mains of animals and plants of precisely the same kinds as those 

 which are at present adding to its substance, excited general interest, 

 and led to many fantastic speculations, which need not now be re- 

 called. The state of opinion at 



the beginning of this century i%%> > i\ ^%< 



may best be learned from the 

 works of the poet - naturalist, 

 Chamisso, who may probably 

 be more widely known as the 

 author of Peter Schlemihl's wun- 

 derba re Geschichtc (The Story of 



the Man who sold his Shadow) than as an investigator of coral reefs. 

 In a description, which even in the light of the most recent research 

 must still be pronounced excellent, Chamisso (Fig. 1) speaks of atolls as 

 table-mountains which rise steeply from great depths. The summit of 

 the table-mountain is always under water, and is covered by the living 

 reef, which surrounds its margin as a broad platform, aud rises to the 



Fig. 1. 



