316 BULLETIN 103, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



piles may be cut to wave base is known, and on page 311 of this paper 

 Foye is quoted on a process by means of which reduction of limestone 

 masses to sea level* or slightly below sea level is accomplished. 



In this connection Salt Key Bank, which lies between the Straits of 

 Florida, Santaren Channel, and Nicholas Channel (text-fig. 22), is 

 interesting, as it is 61 nautical miles long by 37 nautical miles wide. 

 Except a few marginal islets and elongate keys, it ranges between 

 3^ and 8 fathoms in depth. Alexander Agassiz visited and described 

 this bank 1 and says that it is composed of eolian rock similar to the 



Fig. 23.— Chaet of san saba bank. Feom U. S. hydeogeaphic chaet No. 2318. 



Bahamas. The bank looks as if it were once a part of the Bahamas 

 and was dissevered by faulting between it and the Bahamas. 

 Whether that suggestion is or is not true, there is here a large level 

 bank, obviously not formed according to the Darwinian hypothesis, 

 that might serve an atoll foundation. Saba, Pedro, and Rosalind 

 banks in the Caribbean Sea have been mentioned on pages 303, 304. 

 Figures 23-25 illustrate them. 



It is not practicable to work out the geology of the foundations of 

 the Paumotuan and the Maldive and Laccadive stolls, but the 



l A reconnaissance of the Bahamas, etc., Mus. Comp. Zool. Bull., vol. 26, p. 81, pis. 1 and 31, 1894. 



