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



the remains in it of the rest of the fauna of this depth. The inner 

 reefs, described with the living reefs, are round the large islands 

 coated with a fine muddy sand, in which the shells of many species 

 of Foraminifera occur. I would suggest that the soapstone really 

 had a similar origin, and that it is a shallow water deposit ; on 

 these reefs few Mollusca, Echinodermata and other animals and 

 plants are found, such as might be supposed to leave traces of 

 their origin. The deposition of this muddy sand can be at no 

 time very rapid, as it depends largely on the amount of earth 

 carried down by the rivers. The surface is hard and firm, so that 

 trees and other vegetable matter from the land would not 

 ordinarily have time to get imbedded before they decomposed or 

 were destroyed. 



The formation of such a soapstone at 200 fathoms is quite 

 possible ; in this case it should form flat banks 1 — 2 miles wide 

 opposite the rivers, which carry down to it its silica and alumina. 

 It is quite inconceivable, when one considers the rugged nature of 

 the soapstone country of Viti Levu, how it could have been formed 

 from these flats. There would indeed require to have been a 

 whole series of elevations over small areas close to one another, 

 since it is quite impossible to ascribe the forms of most of the 

 hills to rain and river action alone. These inner reefs on the 

 other hand have steep slopes, vary enormously in size, and are 

 distributed over all the lagoons within the barriers of Viti Levu 

 and Vanua Levu ; the distribution of living corals varies, and is 

 often completely changed over large areas owing to local changes of 

 current. I think the section of the raised reef at Suva shows how 

 it has itself been formed. There was a sandy reef at first near the 

 mouth of some river or stream, when owing to some small change 

 in current pebbles began to be deposited. These pebbles of course 

 gave a firm foundation for the coral larvae, and a reef began to 

 grow up ; but, before this reef reached the surface, a deposit of 

 sand on it, possibly from another change of current, killed the 

 corals, and then a further deposit of muddy sand took place on its 

 surface, perhaps raising it almost to the sea-level, before it was 

 upheaved to its present height. 



The crystalline limestone does not form any ranges of hills, 

 sufficiently large for any theory of a coral reef origin to be put 

 forward. It is overlain by the soapstone, and was more probably 

 formed from a chalk, which by the infiltration of water has meta- 

 morphosed. 





