THE LAGOON 191 



boulders are shifted with crowbars by the Malays standing in 

 the water up to the level of their chests, and, with much skill, 

 large masses are rolled and hoisted into a lighter, where the 

 corals and their teeming symbiotic fauna can be well studied. 

 The work is undertaken partly for its own utility, and partly 

 to obtain the boulders for enclosing turtle-ponds, and also for 

 burning into lime. Thanks to the kindness of Mr, Andrew 

 Clunies-Eoss I was able to take part in these expeditions, and 

 the experience gained by seeing and handling so much coral 

 from different areas of the lagoon gives some confidence for 

 dogmatism as to the disposition of living corals within the 

 lagoon. 



Time after time, as the coral was hoisted into the lighter, 

 the same sequence of types showed. The basis was nearly 

 always formed of a large colony of massive Forites, mostly 

 dead, and only here and there at its periphery showing signs of 

 activity; the older portions giving a resting-place to Astrcece 

 and branching types of Madrepora, and, at its edges, the 

 Montiporcn and the various plate growths which are a common 

 modification of many species. In the sand around these 

 masses are the branching types of Madrepora and Montipora, 

 which crumble to pieces and break as the boulders are raised ; 

 and growing at intervals, and usually in the deeper parts — so 

 that the Malays must dive to procure the specimens — are 

 the large leaf-like growths of Echinopora lamellosa. Here too 

 grow the rounded stems of the branching Porites, which are of a 

 varying shade of greyish yellow or greyish purple when alive, 

 but which, when the coral is dead and exposed to the air, turn 

 black. Growing upon the boulders of massive Porites, and 

 also living free in the deeper pits, are the fine colonies of the 

 most delicate of all the corals — the pure white Seriatopora, 

 which has received amongst many other specific titles that of 

 caliendrum. 



Of all the lagoon types of coral, those of a branching 

 habit are the most numerous and appear to be thriving the 

 best, and the type of growth of Madrepora known as pulchra 

 covers unquestionably more ground than any other type. The 



