144 BULLETIN : MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
My observations in Fiji only emphasize what has been said so often, 
that there is no general theory of the formation of coral reefs, either of 
barrier reefs or atolls, applicable to all districts, and that each district 
must be examined by itself. At least such has been my experience in the 
Bermudas, the Bahamas, Cuba, Florida, the West Indies, the Sandwich 
Islands, and Australia. The results of this trip show plainly that Dar- 
win’s theory is not applicable to the Fiji Islands, notwithstanding the 
borings at Funafuti, and that, in all the cases I have examined, the reefs 
form but a thin crust upon the underlying base, the shape and composi- 
tion of which is not in any way due to the growth of corals of the 
existing period. 
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, 
October Ist, 1898. 
