228 



ALBATROSS" TROPICAL PACIFIC EXPEDITION. 



Charts of these groups; they will show more kinds "of excellent atolls " 

 in these groups than he gives them credit for. 



Without entering into a discussion of the permanence of the Pacific 

 Ocean, we need only state that the components of the great groups of 

 atolls in the Pacific are generally separated by deep water, and that to 

 bring up the bulk of the coral islands to the surface would be merely in- 

 creasing slightly the size of the atoll or island as it exists at present, and 

 would in no way present a very considerable tract of land in the very 

 middle of the Pacific Ocean, unless we bring up the bottom of the Pacific 

 with it to a height of more than 2000 fathoms. We may even be justified 

 if, in questions relating to the distribution of land in former ages, we are 

 not carried away by speculations which have no more stable foundation 

 than the ingenious sketching of continents over areas varying in depth 



from 2000 to 3000 fathoms. 

 The statements of Professor 

 Sollas that the " table moun- 

 tain " of Chamisso which cov- 

 ers the summit of Funafuti, is 

 of a similar nature from base 

 to summit, and that " all this 

 is coral reef," is somewhat 

 premature; its nature and 

 structure will be better under- 

 stood when we can speculate 

 upon the data supplied by the 

 final examination of the core 

 now in the hands of Professor J. W. Judd. The results obtained thus far 

 from an examination of the elevated coralliferous limestones of Christmas 

 Island^ and of Mango ^ lead to very different conclusions from those expected 

 by. Professor Sollas. 



No one has, to my knowledge, called attention to the fact that the sound- 



Nativk Hut, Funafuti. 



1 A Monograph of Christmas Island, by Charles W. Andrews, Brit. Mus., 1900. 

 ^ Notes on the Limestones and General Geology of the Fiji Islands, by E. C. Andrews, Bull. 

 M. C. Z., XXXVIIL No. 1, 1900. 



