TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D, C8o 



7. Report on tJte PJanhton and Physical Conditions of the Unglish 

 Ch:innpL — Hee Reports, p. 353. 



8, FJfrfinth pppnvt on fliP Zoology of iho Sandii'ich Islands, 

 Soo Rppoi'ts, p. 352. 



9. Iieport on the Coral Reefs of the Indian Region,— -Hee Reports, p, 3G3, 



FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13. 

 The following Papers were read : — 



1. The Coral Islands of the Maldives.^ By ,) . Stanley Gardiner, M.A, 



The Maldive Archipelago to the south-Tvest of Ceylon is made up of a large 

 series of comparatively shallow banks separated from one another by channels of 

 about 170 fathoms in depth. They extend north and south as a chain, double in 

 the centre, for •'j50 miles. All are covered with coral reefs arising to the surface. 

 Some banks have on their circumferences the single ring-shaped reefs of perfect, 

 atolls, while others are studded with numbers of small isolated ivefs many of 

 which are of circular form with shallow lagoons. The two classes of bank merge 

 into each other, and the changes taking place at the present day are such that 

 the atolls may naturally be suppo.sed to have arisen by the fusion of the smaller 

 reefs. 



All land in the Maldlve group owes its origin directly or indirectly to 

 elevation and in most atolls is very markedly washing away. Everything points 

 to a state of rest at the present day. The atoll reefs are perfecting themselves on 

 all sides, and their passages are closing up. The reefs, however, are not 

 broadening, but to a certain point narrow as they become more perfect. The 

 central basins of atollons are everywhere coming into tiree communication with 

 the lagoons of the atolls. There is no trace whatever of the fdling in of the 

 lagoons ; indeed, such evidence as was foimd pointed on the contrary to their 

 further widening and deepening, and to the gradual destruction of the shoals and 

 lands within their encirclii g repfs. The JMaldive group certainly marks the 

 existence of an ancient land area, but the changes going on are not consistent 

 with the view that the reefs were built up on the subsidence of the land. The 

 various reefs appear rather to have grown up separately on slight elevations of a 

 common plateau at a depth of about 160 fathoms, while the plateau itself seems 

 to have been formed by tlie washing away of the original land by wave and 

 current actions. 



2. On a Method for Recording Local Faunas. 

 By Edward J. Bles, B.A., B.Sc. 



It is evident that faunological work is the basis upon which zoological 

 investigations of all kinds are founded. The important questions connected 

 with the study of environment — since the biological no less than the phy.sical 

 environments of any particular organism must be taken into account — depend for 

 their solution on an accurate and complete knowledge of the associated fauna and 

 flora. There are unlimited opportunities for work on this fascinating subject at 



' For a full account of these islands see The Fauna and Genfjraphy of ilte Mal- 

 dives and Lacciidkea, Camb. Univ. Truss, vol. i., part 1 (October 15, 1901) ami part 

 2 (in the press). 



