GENERAL ACCOUNT HEDLET. 15 



Whitmee,* who writes of Peru in the Gilberts : " The island 

 itself is formed of successive ridges of sand, broken coral, and 

 shells. These ridges are most of them from thirty to fifty feet 

 across, and the hollows formed between them are generally from 

 four to six feet in depth. For some distance, at that end of the 

 island which I examined, they run across, and in the middle they 

 run parallel with the sides of the island. The whole extent 

 examined presented the same appearance, and the ridges were so 

 regular that they gave one the idea of being artificially formed. 

 The waves must exert a mighty force during heavy weather to 

 form these extensive ridges. There is little doubt but each 

 ridge is the result of a single storm. I have already referred, in 

 the notice of Atafu in the Tokelau group, to a similar ridge of 

 smaller dimensions which was thrown up during the present year ; 

 and I have seen several small islands of broken coral and shells, 

 which were formed on the reefs in Samoa during a hurricane of a 

 few hours duration." 



North and south of the Mangrove Swamp the region of decayed 

 coral blocks does not immediately occur, but a considerable area 

 of sandy soil intervenes. To the south a large tract of this is 

 under cultivation, and more was so used when the atoll carried a 

 larger population. Here also are the wells and bathing pools. 

 To this area Dana's remarks! are quite applicable : " There is 

 but little depth of coral soil, although the land may appear buried 

 in the richest foliage. In fact, the soil is scarcely anything but 

 coral sand. It is seldom discoloured beyond four or five inches, 

 and but little of it to this extent ; there is no proper vegetable 

 mould, but only a mixture of darker particles with the white 

 grains of coral sand. It is often rather a coral gravel, and below 

 a foot or two it is usually cemented together into a more or less 

 compact coral sand-rock." 



The northernmost islet of the Funafuti atoll stands out of 

 water higher by several feet than does any other. It occurred 

 to me that the whole atoll had indeed a slight tilt from north to 

 south, but I had no opportunity to decide whether it were so. 

 On this particular islet there was richer red soil, plants grow here 

 unseen elsewhere, there is also the best garden with flourishing 

 bananas, not cultivated in a swamp in the usual Ellice Island 

 fashion but on dry ground. 



A traverse of a leeward islet crosses formation quite different 

 to that of the windward islets. The dry land is a tolerably level 

 expanse of sandy soil, the islets are not arranged so strictly along 

 the margin of the reef as they are to windward, but may be 

 seated far within its border. The major axis of one islet is even 



* Whitmee A Missionary Cruise in the South Pacific, 1871, p. 35. 

 t Loc. cit. p. 179. 



