FUNAFUTI. 215 



cocoanut trees. The sea faces of these islands are flanked with lines of 

 breccia separated by coral shingle beaches. A long line of breakers indi- 

 cates the position of the outer edge of the reef platform upon which these 

 islands are all situated. On the lagoon side of the islands the beaches are 

 covered with coral and coralline sand (PI. 132, fig. 1), and only here and 

 there a small border of coral breccia is seen. 



The small sand key of Te Afualiku (PI. 131, fig. 4) at the northeast 

 entrance of Funafuti atoll has a steep sand beach flanked at the base 

 with breccia and coral shingle ; it is topped with five low cocoanut trees. 

 Steaming in slowly through the northeastern entrance, we could see, on the 

 bottom of the passage, the masses of corals separated in the deeper part by 

 wide patches of sand. As we were coming in, we could see in the distance 

 on the west face, the islands of Fualopa and Tebuka, and the sand bars and 

 reef flats to the south (PL 222). The lagoon faces of the island, as well as 

 the small sand key ' in the northern part of the atoll^ are flanked with steep 

 sand beaches. Turning towards the anchorage, we steamed along off the 

 lagoon beach of the island of Funafuti ; the lagoon beach consists of a 

 succession of sand beaches alternating with short buttresses of coral breccia, 

 extending as far as the village of Fongafale. 



With our pilot as a guide, we examined the position of the second bore 

 hole drilled under the direction of Professor David. It is situated in a sink 

 west of the weather beach in the midst of a coral breccia. At that point the 

 outer rim of the reef platform consists of knolls of Pocillipores and of Nulli- 

 pores rising to a height of from two to three feet above the general level 

 of the reef flat extending between it and the base of the beach (Pis. 132, 

 fig. 2; 135, fig. 2; 136, fig. 1). The reef flat varies from forty to fifty 

 yards in width. The outer edge is deeply gouged with passages cut by the 

 action of the sea, or where the sea has broken through the elevated rim 

 of the platform. The flat between the outer rim and the base of the beach 

 consists of coral breccia, planed down to the level of low-water mark or 

 even below it ; it is slightly dished, so as to form a very shallow lagoon at 

 low water, flanked by an incipient barrier reef, as it were, formed by the 



1 While there are many shoals and submerged patches in the lagoon of Funafuti, Te akau Tuluaga 

 (PI. 222) is the only dry patch in the interior of the lagoon. 



