2 4 



W. J. SOLLAS 



[JANUARY 



Darwin 



MUB RAY 





TraCM[nts 



might be obtained by sinking a bore-hole through some well-character- 

 ised atoll, and thus obtaining specimens of the material of which it is 

 composed, down to a depth considerably greater than that at which 

 corals are supposed to build. How would this illustrate the question ? 

 Allow me to employ a homely illustration : buyers of cheese are not, 

 I presume, naturally more suspicious than other persons engaged in 

 trade, but they are unwilling to trust too much to mere outward 

 appearance ; they are not inclined to adopt the argument which com- 

 mended itself to Chamisso in a parallel case, that because there is good 

 cheese on the surface it must be good cheese all through : consequently 

 by means of a boring instrument, called a scoop, they make a hole 

 through the cheese and bring out a core or cylindrical rod, in which 

 the several strata of the material, if there be more than one, are dis- 

 played in their true thickness and natural position. The atoll is our 



cheese, which we propose to sample 

 with a complicated kind of scoop 

 called a diamond drill. This should 

 provide us with a core in which the 

 various layers of the coral reef should 

 be faithfully represented. Should 

 Darwin's theory prove correct, the 

 core will contain the remains of reef- 

 building corals as far down as the 

 reef extends ; if, on the other hand, 

 Sir John Murray's explanation make 

 a nearer approach to the truth, layers 

 of chalky ooze will be present at 

 depths greater than that of the limit 

 of coral growth (Fig. 5). 

 No one who has any notion of the extraordinary thoroughness with 

 which Darwin attacked this as every other problem that he investigated, 

 will be at all surprised to learn that the same solution had already 

 occurred to him, and in a letter to A. Agassiz (May 5, 1881) he 

 sighs for " some doubly rich millionaire, who would take it into his 

 head to have borings made in some of the Pacific and Indian atolls, 

 and bring home cores for slicing from a depth of 500 or 600 feet." 

 As the wished-for millionaire did not appear to be forthcoming, it ap- 

 peared to me that the boring might be achieved in another way, by a 

 method very familiar to this Association, I allude of course to a "Com- 

 mittee." On approaching Professor Bonney with a suggestion to this 

 effect he warmly entertained the proposal, and in 1891 a strong Com- 

 mittee, including the most distinguished supporters and opponents of 

 Darwin's theory, was formed, having for its object the investigation of 

 an atoll by boring and other means. 



Through the kind offices of Professor Stuart of Sydney we obtained 

 from the Government of New South Wales the offer of the free loan of 



Fig. 5. 



