■220 Reviews — The Atoll of Funafuti. 



■with regard to the publication of the results, the Council of the 

 Koyal Society authorised the preparation of a monograph of which 

 the main feature should be a description of the whole core from the 

 points of view of the naturalist and the chemist. The cores and 

 loose material were brought to London for detailed examination, 

 and subsequently the half-cylinders of core and duplicate portions 

 of the loose material have been returned to Sydney, and the part 

 retained in England has been placed in the British Museum (Natural 

 History) at Cromwell Road, South Kensington. 



Professor Bonney further states, "that into the controversies about 

 the development of coral-reefs, those who have been concerned in the 

 preparation of this volume have not attempted to enter. They have 

 endeavoured to state facts, and leave it to readers to interpret these 



for themselves At any rate the composition, zoological 



and chemical, of an atoll down to a depth of 1,114 feet has now, 

 for the first time, been made known." The final success of the 

 undertaking is attributed by Professor Bonney to the zeal, energy, 

 and liberality of friends in New South Wales, more especially of 

 Professors Edgeworth David and Anderson Stuart, and of the 

 Oovernment of that Colony. 



The Report is divided into fourteen sections, in which each author 

 gives an account of the observations in his own branch of the 

 work and of the results obtained, and in many cases inferences 

 from these results are drawn. It is, however, desirable to bear in 

 mind that these inferences represent the views of the individual 

 authors of the respective sections, as in some instances they appear 

 to be rather speculative. 



The narrative, by Professor W. J. Sollas, D.Sc, F.E.S., of the 

 first expedition, sent out under him in 1896, occupies the first 

 nection. The expedition was of little importance, except as paving 

 the way for those that followed, and enabling them to succeed 

 tlirough the knowledge gained by its failures. For a failure 

 it was as far as its main object was concerned ; although two 

 borings were attempted the first reached a depth of only 105 feet, 

 and the second 72. They failed mainly through the inability of 

 the machinery to deal with alternations of hard cavernous rock and 

 loose sand. 



To quote Prof. Sollas : — " Although the boring proved a failure, 

 several other objects of the expedition were attained with complete 

 success. Messrs. Hedley and Gardiner made a thorough investigation 

 of the flora and fauna, both land and marine. Dr. Collingwood 

 obtained a good deal of information of ethnological interest, and we 

 all made a fairly complete collection of native implements and 

 manufactures. A daily record was kept of maximum and minimum 

 temperatures, and of the readings of dry and wet bulb thermometers. 

 - • . . The most important contribution, however, is afforded 

 by the investigations of Captain Field, who made a complete topo- 

 graphical survey of the Atoll, and a vast number of soundings both 

 in the lagoon and the outer sea; he also carried out magnetic and 

 tidal observations." 



