116 FUNAFUTI 



continuously night and day, but at the end of that time, 

 when the bore-hole was only 105 feet deep, their most 

 arduous efforts failed to advance it further. The 

 difficulties opposed by the nature of the ground a 

 mixture of flowing sand and obdurate boulders were 

 such that neither the good-will of the workmen nor the 

 ingenuity of Ayles, the foreman, could contend against 

 them, and there was no alternative but to abandon the 

 undertaking. 



Thinking that there might be a better prospect of 

 success on the ocean side of the reef, we determined to 

 make a fresh attempt there, and in two days, without 

 the help of wheels and in a country without roads, we 

 succeeded in transporting the bulk of our twenty-five tons 

 of machinery across the island to a fresh site. The new 

 boring commenced in hard rock and at first deepened 

 rapidly. Before long, however, it entered a mixture of 

 sand and boulders similar to that we had previously 

 encountered, and after attaining a depth of 72 feet 

 further progress became impossible. We left the island 

 on the 30th of July, and on reaching Fiji had the mor- 

 tification to learn that we had passed on the way 

 a ship coming to our assistance with a fresh supply of 

 machinery, which our friends in Sydney had promptly 

 despatched on hearing of oar difficulties. 



Our attempt to penetrate the reef had proved a failure, 

 but it was not wholly without result. It had revealed 

 the nature of the material with which any subsequent 

 attempts at boring would have to contend, and it had 

 added one more surprise to the history of atolls, for no 

 one had suspected that for a depth of over 100 feet the 

 island would be found to consist of more sand than coral, 

 or, in other words, that the organisms which play the 

 chief part in the construction of a coral reef are not corals, 

 but foraminifera ! 



