422 Mr Gardiner, The Coral Reefs of [Mar. 7. 



between the different islands. The ebb tide, however, can receive 

 little assistance by the sea water of the lagoon escaping in this 

 way, so that the out-going currents are much stronger ; for some 

 time indeed after low tide there is still a noticeable current 

 outwards in these channels. The current too in the southerly 

 channels naturally sets in stronger, and goes out weaker than 

 in the westerly ones, as it is to some extent the resultant of the 

 forces of the tidal and wind currents. 



The islands on the reef are generally covered with loose blocks 

 of reef-rock between which coconut and other trees have taken 

 root ; in most places there is little or no soil. In some parts the 

 surface shows a flat platform of hard rock with scanty, or no 

 vegetation; the largest lies in the middle of Fualifeke, and there 

 is another on Funafara to the east of the "pocket." Usually 

 the presence of this flat smooth platform is concealed by boulders, 

 among which the trees grow, but I found it existing very generally 

 on all the islands to the south of the atoll, and by the sides of the 

 " pocket." To the east such a flat does not exist, the whole 

 surface seeming simply to be a mass of loose blocks, the skeletons 

 of different species of corals and masses of reef-rock. 



The breadth of the islands varies from 50 — 300 yards, but 

 of course at their ends they narrow down to mere ridges ; their 

 general breadth is scarcely more than 120 yards. The main 

 island in its extreme eastern part is considerably broader than 

 any of the other islands of the atoll, by the village being about 

 600 yards across. Here there is, however, for the greater part of 

 the breadth on the lagoon side a deep sandy soil, formed of the 

 ordinary beach sand, which is found in the lagoon in the vicinity, 

 mixed with a certain amount of mould from the vegetation, which 

 grows especially luxuriantly on it. Here too there is what 

 Professor Sollas has called the " mangrove swamp," a bare area 

 in the middle of this part of the island, covered with water at high 

 tide ; to it the sea gains access from the seaward face of the atoll 

 through three tunnels at its northern end. Its south end is 

 covered by a fine mud, varying up to 3 feet in depth, with 

 boulders imbedded in it ; these are often of large size and project 

 in places above the surface of the mud. Partially imbedded in 

 this mud Professor Sollas has traced a crescent-shaped 1 "dead 

 coral reef, constituted almost entirely of two species, one a massive 

 Porites and the other Heliopora coerulea. For a great part of 

 the day this floor lies bare and dry, the frayed ends of the 

 Heliopora standing like broken reeds 6 inches above its surface, 

 and the great clumps of Porites forming a series of stepping 

 stones of equal height. Neither of these corals stands long 



1 Eeport on the Coral Keef at Funafuti. Nature, Vol. lv. 1897, p. 376. 



