16 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



at right angles to the general trend of the reef. From the base 

 of the vegetation a broad sandy beach extends around the islet, 

 it is largely composed of two species of Foraminifera, which 

 Mr. Whitelegge informs me are Tinoporus baculatus, Mont., and 

 Orbitolites cornplanata, Lamarck. High water mark indicated by 

 lines of drifted leaves and shells implies a quiet sea. At about 

 half tide mark, especially upon the ocean side, sheets of regularly 

 bedded coral-sand-rock appear, answering in position to the breccia 

 of the windward beaches. At a lower level the shore extends in 

 rough ledges and deep pools for perhaps a hundred yards, beyond 

 this it becomes more level and carries numerous loose boulders of 

 coral rock, as large as ah ordinary chair or table ; such boulders 

 are known as " niggerheads " on the Great Barrier Reef of 

 Queensland, and have been described by Dana,* Jukes, f and 

 Kent. I 



Everywhere small peebles of pumice the size of a walnut 

 might be collected on the beaches. The natives say that a few 

 years ago much pumice came ashore, coincident with which the 

 fish from without the lagoon became unfit for food. A further 

 account of this pumice will be found in the accompanying Report 

 by my colleague, Dr. T. Cooksey. 



"Funafuti," writes Newell, || is a group of some thirty islets 

 surrounding a lagoon twelve miles in length. . . . The names 

 of many of the islets in this group were given me. Not only 

 here but all through the Ellice Group I found that not merely 

 did every little atoll bear a name, but that the names of atolls 

 and of known spots on these atolls were significant of some fact 

 in its history, either original ownership or some physical feature 

 of the islet, or some historical fact connected with the place. 

 The following names of islets in the Funafuti Group are interest- 

 ing : Te Pava (the name of a Samoan, Upolu, war god) ; Te fua 

 te fe'e, the offspring of the Fe'e (either the ancestor or the god 

 incarnate in the cuttlefish) ; Aumatupu ; Te muri te fala, the end 

 of the Pandanus ; Te af u alii, the sweat of the chief ; Te puka, 

 the name of a tree;51 Te puka savilivili ; Te fua lopa ; Te fua 

 fatu ; Fuage'a ; Te fala, the pandanus ; Te fala o Ingo ; Tutanga ; 



* Loc. cit., p. 179, figs. 1 and 2. 



t Jukes Voyage of the "Fly," 1847, i., p. 16. 



J Kent Great Barrier Eeef of Queensland, 1893, pp. 49, 104, PL xxx. 



These peebles of pumice are of very frequent occurrence on the 

 shores of the inlets of the east coast of Australia. This subject lias 

 been discussed at length by Messrs. David and Etheridge in Rec. Geol. 

 Surv. N.S.W., 1890, ii., 2, p. 27. And for Polynesia see Guppy The 

 Solomon Islands, their Geology, &c., 1887, Chap. x. 



|| Loc. cit. p. 608. 



T Hernandia peltata, Meissn. See Vegetation post. 



