212 "ALBATEOSS" TROPICAL PACIFIC EXPEDITION. 



Funafuti. 



Plates 129, fig. J^; 130-137, 221, 222; 224, fig. 1- 



Funafuti,^ the next island of the Ellice group we visited, is about thir- 

 teen and a half miles in a north and south direction, with an extreme 

 breadth of ten miles. As seen from the sea, it looked like one of the large 

 Paumotu atolls (PI. 222), the land rim formed by a .series of narrow islands 

 of different sizes Hanked by a belt of low vegetation, inside of which grow 

 groups of cocoanuts ; on the east face of the atoll along which we were 

 steaming (PI. 222), the islands and islets are separated by gaps of variable 

 width. At the southern horn of Funafuti, the reef flat is covered by huge 

 boulders and reaches of beach rock and coral breccia with coarse shingle 

 above them. The land rim of the atoll of Funafuti is even narrower than 

 in most of the atolls of the Paumotus (PI. 222). 



The land rim of the island of Funafuti is extremely narrow, with the 

 exception of the slight expansion which takes place back of Fongafale at 

 the east point of the island (Pis. 222 ; 224, fig. 1). The photographs here 

 published (Pis. 129, fig. 4; 130, 131) show in succession the characteristic 

 features of the eastern face of the atoll of Funafuti ; first Motungie and 

 Motuloa Island (PI. 129, fig. 4), at the southern extremity of the atoll, next 

 the sea face between the islands of Telele and Funafara (PI. 130, fig. 1) 

 showing the wide gap with an islet in the middle. The gap separating 

 these two islands is covered with beach rock and shingle ; further in towards 

 the lagoon they are separated by a broad stretch of coral sand which fills 

 the greater part of the shallow lagoon of the southern horn of Funafuti 

 (PI. 222). The extremities of the two islands extend towards the lagoon 

 nearly at right angles to the outer reef flat (PI. 222), and from the centre of 

 the gap huge sand bars run towards the lagoon. A similar gap is next 

 shown between the islands of Funafara and Lua motu (PI. 130, fig. 2) ; then 

 comes the gap between Lua motu and Mateika (PI. 130, fig. 3). 



North of the extremity of Mateika there is a break of nearly three miles 

 in the continuity of the encircling reef, the island of Falefatu alone 



1 A. Chart 2983. 



