192 CORAL AND ATOLLS 



western half of tlae southern area of the lagoon is therefore 

 fairly well populated by coral colonies, and a very definite set 

 of types is usually found gathered together as a composite 

 mass of growths, these masses being dotted about in irregular 

 fashion all over the bottom of the lagoon. 



The eastern side of the southern end of the lagoon is 

 more barren of corals than the Avestern side ; and this state 

 of things is owing to the effects of the strange happenings of 

 the year 1876. 



As a sequel to a cyclone which visited the atoll in the 

 January of that year, there occurred an event which to this 

 day has left its imprint plainly marked on the coral growth of 

 the lagoon. When the storm had died down for some thirty- 

 six hours, it was noticed that a spring of dark-coloured and 

 malodorous water was welling up into the lagoon from a source 

 somewhere between the southern end of Pulu Selma and the 

 northern end of Pulu Cheplok. The foul water continued to 

 ooze out for some ten or fourteen days, and it slowly spread all 

 over the eastern portion of the southern end of the lagoon. 

 Dr. H. 0. Forbes visited the atoll two years after this event, 

 and has well described the lifeless state of the area over which 

 this water flowed. In " A Naturalist's Wanderings," p. 22, he 

 says : " Its whole eastern half was one vast field of blackened 

 and lifeless coral stems, and of the vacant and lustreless shells 

 of giant clams and other MoUusca paralysed and killed in all 

 stages of expansion. Everywhere both shells and coral were 

 deeply corroded, the coral especially being in many places 

 worn down to a solid base. Since the catastrophe, there has 

 been, till almost the day of my visit, no sign of life in that 

 portion of the lagoon ; I saw very few fishes, and only here 

 and there a new branch oi Madrepora and Poritcs. I found 

 only one Tridacna alive (its three years' growth being twelve 

 inches in length and thirteen in breadth)." 



This description forms a very good basis for estimating the 

 time that is occupied by the corals in renewing their growth, 

 and we have a further landmark'in Dr. H. B. Guppy's account 

 written in 1888. 



