178 CORAL AND ATOLLS 



nearer shore they tend to be continuous with the ends of the 

 islands. 



Although there is a certain amount of constancy in the 

 shape of the islands in the ring, there is a very great diversity 

 in their size ; and the largest islands lie to the south of the 

 group. 



Pulu Panjang and Pulu Atas are by far the largest pieces 

 of land ; not only are they longer, but they are wider from sea 

 beach to lagoon shore than the other islands, and their seaward 

 margins are amongst the highest pieces of land in the 

 atoll. Whatever the size or shape of the island, it must 

 always be borne in mind that the dry land is a heaped-up 

 collection of debris : the islands are made of flotsam and 

 jetsam, of which of course the greatest constituent is dead and 

 broken coral. It is only to be supposed that time, with the 

 sub-aerial alteration of coral, the growth and death of all sorts 

 of vegetable products, and the action of the winds on the 

 lighter particles, should have done much to alter the original 

 appearance of the land. The larger islands towards the 

 south are those that have, to-day, the least of the original 

 features of their origin : the coral fragments have become 

 disintegrated and buried beneath the accumulated generations 

 of fallen trees, fallen leaves, and the husks of the coconuts. 



It is the regulating policy of the islands that the husk of 

 the nut is not used for the purposes of commerce, and so no 

 fibre is made and no coir exported, but the husk rots where 

 it falls, for all the nuts are husked as they are picked up. In this 

 way the thickly vegetated islands have accumulated a consider- 

 able depth of soil. One of the important factors in the formation 

 of this vegetable mould is the large Kapeting Balong (Cardio- 

 soma, sp.), which plays, on a grand scale, the role of the 

 earth-worm. It burrows the land through and through, and 

 undermines the heaps of husks with its tunnels — almost as 

 large as rabbit-holes — so that a considerable part of the fibre 

 becomes buried. The buried husks rot, and more earth is 

 formed for future generations of coconuts to take root in, and 

 for future generations of the Kapeting to till. Not only the 



