54 PAPERS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF MARINE BIOLOGY. 



may be found on pages 6i and 62. The manuscript of a paper bringing together 

 all the results is almost finished, and should soon be ready for press. 



Regarding the investigations of coral reefs, of which the study of the 

 ecology of corals is only a part, I will say that in my opinion they should be 

 investigated from at least the following different standpoints: 



(i) The corals themselves, to ascertain the ecologic conditions under which 

 they live or lived, and to distinguish the calcium carbonate secreted by corals from 

 that contributed tlirough other agencies. 



(2) A complex of geologic processes operating in the area must be studied, 

 analyzed, and evaluated. Among these are the agencies other than corals whereby 

 calcium carbonate may be taken from the sea-water, the probability of the solvent 

 action of sea-water on calcium carbonate, the effects of winds, currents, and waves 

 in building, shaping, and destroying banks, and in submarine planation. 



(3) The stratigraphic and structural geology of the area, including a careful 

 study of the origin of the sedimentary rocks with which corals are associated. 



(4) The physiography, especially that of the shore-line, that of the land area 

 adjacent to the shore, and that of the sea-bottom from the shore to abyssal depths. 



By following the suggested program the ecologic factors influencing reef 

 development, the constructional role of corals and other agents, the factors 

 which determine the form of the reef, and the series of geologic events which 

 preceded any particular reef development may be ascertained; but should 

 any part of the program be omitted the results will not be conclusive. 



My work on Indo-Pacific corals between 1902 and 1907 made me keenly 

 conscious of the meagerness of knowledge of the faunas of certain areas. For 

 the Red Sea, the east coast of Africa, and the Maldives and Laccadives, we 

 have the work of several students, including Klunzinger and von Marenzeller 

 for the Red Sea, Gravier and myself for French Somaliland, and Gardiner 

 for the Maldives and Laccadives; but there were only scattered notes on the 

 Cocos-Keeling Islands. In the Pacific, Dana, Quelch, and Gardiner have 

 made the Fijian fauna fairly well known, Bedot has monographed the corals of 

 Amboina, and I have published a monograph on the Hawaiian fauna; but the 

 coral faunas of two great coral areas, Australia and the Philippines, have been 

 inadequately described, although there is a considerable literature on each. 

 Therefore, when Dr. Mayer offered to make a collection of corals at Murray 

 Island, I expressed the hope that I might find time to write a report on it; but 

 I had not expected to undertake the preparation of the report immediately 

 upon receipt of the material. However, upon his return to the United States 

 Dr. Mayer requested me to identify the set of numbered specimens specially 

 illustrating the corals on which he had made observations and experiments 

 at Murray Island. Compliance with his desire necessitated not only criti- 

 cally working over the entire collection made by him, but also reviewing 

 the species of each genus represented. Before passing to the other collec- 

 tions described in this paper, it will be said that most of the specimens 

 submitted by Dr. Mayer were obtained at intervals of 200 feet, beginning at 

 400 feet from shore on what he designates as line I, southeast reef, and 



