342 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



formation of the atolls and reefs of Fiji will readily un- 

 derstand that whatever the age or formation of these 

 elevated limestones, he considered the method of their 

 origin was quite a separate question from that of modern 

 atolls. For these older limestones have formed the ma- 

 terial out of which the atolls have been eroded and de- 

 nuded, and on whose submarine platforms modern corals 

 have found a footing, just as a cathedral, built over the 

 remains of an ancient temple, would have an entirely 

 different history and structure from the ruin on which 

 it rested. 



At whatever time the Fijian upheaval took place, 

 Agassiz thought it was possibly coincident with the 

 elevation of Northern Queensland, and that the area of 

 elevation included New Guinea, and the islands east of 

 it as far south as New Caledonia, and as far east as the 

 most distant of the Paumotus, and extended northward 

 to include the Gilbert, Ellice, Marshall, and Caroline 

 Islands. Since this epoch of elevation the islands within 

 this area have been, like Northern Australia, subject to 

 extensive denudation and erosion. 



While Agassiz was preparing for his expedition to 

 Fiji, Professor David was continuing the boring opera- 

 tions on the atoll of Funafuti in the Ellice group, origin- 

 ally undertaken by Professor Sollas, under the auspices 

 of the Royal Society. The day before leaving Cam- 

 bridge, Agassiz received word that Professor David had 

 succeeded in boring to a depth of nearly six hundred 

 feet and that he was still boring in coral. This seemed 

 to settle the matter, but subsequent letters from Pro- 

 fessor David showed that the question was not so simple. 

 Agassiz's investigations in the Fijis convinced him that 

 the boring at Funafuti had settled nothing, "and that 



