1898.] Funafuti, Rotuma and Fiji. 437 



its general habitat seemed to me in Fiji and Rotuma rather to 

 be on the tops of the reefs, and in the boat channels of fringing 

 reefs, than in the deeper water outside the reef, or in the 

 lagoon. 



From the steep outer slopes of the reef, between 40 and 100 

 fathoms, the swabs brought up only a few solitary corals with a 

 considerable number of fragments of several species of Gorgonacea. 

 Nearly all these hauls, from the outer slope, produced a number of 

 loose pieces of stone, most of which had encrusting nullipores 

 growing on them. In one haul, made up the reef by the Penguin 

 to 75 fathoms, there were upwards of 30 such pieces none of which 

 showed any signs of fracture, and nearly all were to some extent 

 encrusted by these algae. From these dredgings the steep slope 

 would seem to be formed by the talus of the reef, its angle 

 75° — 80° being apparently the angle at which shingle will lie 

 at such a depth under the water. The presence of nullipores 

 growing at depths greater than 75 fathoms is of extreme im- 

 portance ; the observation, however, requires further confirmation. 



In all, the swabs were hauled eight times at a greater depth 

 than 40 fathoms ; the result of six of these hauls I examined and 

 in no less than four of them encrusting nullipores were present in 

 the living state on stones brought up ; the fifth haul was to a 

 depth of 105 fathoms, and the sixth only brought up a few pieces 

 of Gorgonacea. 



How such an atoll as Funafuti has been formed can only be a 

 matter of conjecture in the present state of our knowledge ; the 

 bathymetrical limit of any single species of coral is unknown, and 

 our knowledge is limited with regard to the multifarious conditions 

 affecting coral and nullipore life. I have succeeded, I believe, in 

 showing that there has been, in the case of Funafuti, an elevation. 

 Professor Sollas, mainly from the evidence of the Heliopora reef 

 which he very carefully examined in the mangrove swamp, 

 suggests an elevation of at least four feet. I have pointed out 

 that smooth flats almost bare of vegetation exist in different 

 islands of the atoll ; now, unless these were originally part of a 

 reef-flat, I do not see how they could have been formed. In the 

 raised reefs of Viti Levu, Fiji, I could find no such consolidation 

 of fragments to flat, hard platforms, such as these, having taken 

 place above water, and reefs covered over by a fathom or more 

 of water at low tide do not exhibit any signs of such a platform. 

 As some of these flats are 5 feet above high tide and the existing 

 reef-flat is 5 feet below, these would require an elevation of the 

 whole atoll of at least 10 feet. The edge of the hurricane beach 

 is simply the edge of these flats, perhaps close to the rim of the 

 former reef, where it abutted against the sea ; the term, hurricane 

 beach, is then clearly a misnomer, as none, such as is found on 



