224 "ALBATROSS" TROPICAL PACIFIC EXPEDITION. 



Several accounts regarding the structure of Funafuti have been pub- 

 lished by Hedley/ Sollas,^ Gardiner,^ David,* and Bonney/ as well as a popu- 

 lar description of the atoll by Mrs. David.^ 



Professor Sollas and Mr. Hedley called attention to the evidence of a 

 slight elevation in Funafuti from the existence of Porites and of Heliopora 

 at a level where they could only have been reached by high tides. It does 

 not seem to me as if the mangrove swamp originated in the manner 

 described by Hedley .'^ I am inclined to refer its formation to the closing 

 of a bay which probably existed east of Fongafale, much as the gap between 

 Telele and Funafana at the southern point of the atoll of Funafuti is closing 

 (PI. 222). This mode of formation of sinks, by the closing of bays, is quite 

 common throughout the atolls of the Pacific, and many instances will be 

 found described throughout this Report. 



I agree with Gardiner that the term "hurricane beach" is not an appro- 

 priate one ; many of the large coral masses which have all the appearance 

 of having been thrown up by the sea are fragments of elevated reef rock 

 outliers ; the successive more or less concentric ridges of sand and shingle 

 which form the land rim are not necessarily due to individual hurricanes; 

 their height and width depend in great part on their distance from the 

 outer edge of the reef flat, and on the amount of sand and shingle availa- 

 ble at special points for their gradual formation and increase. 



Mr. Hedley gives an excellent account of Funafuti Island and of one of 

 the leeward islands. He considers the lagoon to be filling up ; it certainly is 

 receiving material to some extent near the passes and along the lagoon 

 shore of the land rim ; but so large a lagoon as that of Funafuti is, as he 



1 General Account of the Atoll of Funafuti, by C. Hedley, Australian Museum, Sidney, Mem. III., 

 1896. 



2 Report to the Committee of the Royal Society Appointed to investigate the Structure of a Coral 

 Reef by Boring, by J, W. Sollas, Proc. R S., February, 1897. Also in "Funafuti" : The Study of a 

 Coral Atoll, Natural Science, January, 1899. 



" The Coral Reefs of Funafuti, Rotuma, and Fiji, by J. Stanley Gardiner, Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc , 

 IX. Pt. VIII., March, 1898. 



* Summary of Professor Edgeworth David's Preliminary Report on the Results of the Borings in 

 the Atoll of Funafuti, Proc. R. S., December, 1897. 



^ Recent Coral Boring Operations at Funafuti, Nature, November 3, 1898. 



« Funafuti, by Mrs. Edgeworth David, London, 1899. With a note on the Results of the Borings 

 at Funafuti, Ellice Group, by Professor T. G, Bonney. 



' Loc. cit., p. 11. 



