KWAJALONG. 299 



"We went ashore on Gehh Island (PL 169, fig. 1), a small island, in reality 

 only a sand dune blown up from the lagoon side, overwhelming the huge 

 boulders and coral heads of all kinds growing on the outer reef flat. The 

 destruction of the corals on the outer reef flat recalls that of the Millepores 

 and Pontes on the lagoon flats of Taritari. At Gehh, however, the heads of 

 corals are much larger ; many of them are dead masses thrown up on the 

 outer reef flat; the living corals are more isolated and consist of various 

 species of massive corals characteristic of the Marshall Islands, such as heads 

 of Millepores, Porites, Madrepores, Pavonias, and Mseandrinas. The heads 

 are separated by deep lanes, in which are accumulating dead corals or sand ; 

 the top of the heads is often covered with fragments of dying and dead 

 corals, killed by exposure during low tides and covered with a coating of 

 Nullipores. The sea breaks the tops of the dead masses, and with the sand 

 dunes encroaching upon them from the lagoon side we have a reef flat 

 formed of an entirely different character from that of any reef flat we have 

 yet seen.^ The reef flat slopes gradually into deep water ; from the outer 

 edge of the platform we could trace large masses, and heads of corals of 

 the same species as those found on the reef flat itself, only in full activity, 

 growing most luxuriantly in from six to seven fathoms of water, and grad- 

 ually becoming more distant and smaller towards the seventeen-fathom line, 

 where the coral boulders have entirely disappeared, and are replaced by 

 fine coral sand washed down from the upper part of the reef flat. 



It happened to be an unusually clear day when we examined this outer 

 slope, so that we were able to distinguish remarkably distinctly the corals 

 growing under the lee of this islet ; at some points many of the heads seemed 

 to extend even to a depth of twenty or twenty-two fathoms, and certainly 

 grew comparatively luxuriantly as far as fourteen fathoms. From seventeen 

 to twenty-five fathoms large blocks of Algae and Nullipores were seen. No 

 large masses of dead corals exist at the foot of the extensive reef flat ; its 

 slope is very gradual, the distance from the outer edge of the reef flat (low- 

 water mark) to the twenty-fathom line being about 300 yards. There is not 

 the sudden drop into fifty or one hundred fathoms as on many of the outer 



1 A similar condition of things exists at the north end of Illeginni (PI. 169, figs. 3, 4), where the 

 sand from the lagoon face has been blown over the narrow land rim and encroached upon the outer 

 reef platform. 



