24 Notices of Memoirs — C. W. Andrews — On Christmas Island. 



cbaracteristic appearance ; tlie cliff on the southern side of Egeria 

 promontory is similar, and the small cliffs resulting from successive 

 steps can be plainly seen. 



At the western end of the island the upper cliffs are replaced by 

 gentle slopes, and even the first inland cliff is ill defined, except 

 towards North-West and Egeria Points. Another characteristic 

 feature of this region is the occurrence of several valleys running 

 down to the sea in a generally south-western direction. These first 

 commence as a shallow depression at about 400 feet, but, as 

 they are followed, deepen to a narrow gorge which cuts through the 

 first inland and sometimes the sea cliff also. The scenery of these 

 valleys is the most picturesque on the island, and reminds one 

 a little of the dales in the Mountain Limestone in the Peak District. 

 The floor of these valleys is generally formed of volcanic rock 

 (basalt), and in the wet season is occupied by a small stream, which 

 descends to the sea by a succession of falls and rapids; but at the 

 time of my visit water was only found in the northernmost valley. 



The last locality to be described is Flying Fish Cove, by far the 

 most important, because it seems to supply the key to the structure 

 of the island as a whole. In the large-scale map of this district 

 given, it will be observed that at this point the sea-cliff is 

 interrupted, and its place taken by a long curved stretch of white 

 shingle beach, in front of which a broad fringing reef stretches from 

 one end of the cove to the other. Behind the beach is a nearly 

 level platform, composed mainly of blocks and fragments of coral 

 mingled with talus from the cliff above. This level has been, for 

 the most part, cleared and planted with cocoanut-palms, fruit-trees, 

 and vegetables, and is the site of " Clunies-Eoss Settlement," which 

 consists of some nine or ten houses, workshops, and stores. The 

 cliff joining the back of the cove is about 500 feet high in the middle, 

 but decreases in height towards the ends, and towards the north the 

 slope becomes less steep. For the greater part of its length it 

 consists of alternations of low, more or less vertical cliffs, with steep 

 talus slopes ; but towards the southern end the upper part forms 

 overhanging precipices of 200 feet or more in height, while the 

 lower portion is covered by a talus slope of limestone blocks, often 

 as large as a fair-sized cottage. Some of these lie far out on the 

 reef. In this cliff and in its immediate neighbourhood we have 

 almost the only section from which it is possible to get an idea 

 of the nature of the foundation upon which the upper reefs have 

 beei^ established ; almost everywhere else the central portion of the 

 island is concealed by the investing covering of more recent 

 limestones which have formed round the island, either as sediment 

 derived from the higher coral masses or as reefs which have grown 

 on the slopes of the island during its elevation. The circumstance 

 that nearly all the rocks of the island are white limestones, often 

 lai-gely made up of fragments of older beds or containing fossils 

 derived from them, renders the interpretation of the facts observed 

 a matter of great difficulty. It will not be necessary, however, here 

 to enter into details of the geology of the island, and only u briof 



