50 J. STANLEY GARDINER. 



time extended round the whole atoll with only a single break perhaps to the north with 

 lower parts here and there, where boat channels across the reef now exist. The seaward 

 shore must at that time have been relatively steep, like that between Kodi and Mou- 

 Rambu points at the present day but without terraces. The old reef must have had 

 extensive sand-flats, extending out fi-om it into the lagoon on every side, and the lagoon 

 on change of level, if it existed at all, must have been at most a mere small, central 

 pool with a slight ebb and flow of the tide through a single inconsiderable channel to the 

 north. Indeed save for this small channel Minikoi cannot at one time have been far 

 different from the low coral islands such as Oaitupu (EUice Group), Mulaku (Maldives) and 

 Tromelin, which exist in considerable numbers in both the Pacific and Indian Oceans. 

 Supposing the land in the present atoll to be entirely swept away, the condition at the 

 present day cannot be far different from that of the atoll before the change of level, 

 allowing for its then smaller size. 



{To he continued.) 



