Xlll 



old friend and pupil wete diverted from the reorganisation of the Geolooical Museum 

 and the work of the Chair at Oxford to which he had heen recently appointed, and 

 from more than one of the important original investigations on whicli he was also 

 engaged. Thus, as my own time was — in the natural course of things — becoming 

 less valuable, and the date of my retirement from the work of teaching was mentally 

 fixed, 1 offered to relieve Professor Sollas of the more mechanical work of Editor- 

 ship, and the Committee at a meeting held February 9, 1900, passed the following 

 resolution : — 



That the Vice-Chairman of the Committee be requested to aid Professor Sollas and the other members 

 of the Committee by undertaking the general editorial supervision of the volume which is to be issued 

 by the Eoyal Society. 



Thus I am responsible for passing this volume through the Press, though I have 

 had the advantage of consulting Professor Sollas whenever this was necessary. 

 Proofs have been submitted to all Authors resident in England, but for misprints 

 to the contributions from Australia I must bear the blame, and trust that any slips on 

 the part of Author or Editor will be leniently judged, for under the circumstances the 

 task has been far from easy. A bibliography of memoirs relating to materials 

 obtained during the three Expeditions will be found at the end ot Section X, but it 

 has been deemed needless to attempt one on either coral reefs in general or the Ellice 

 group in particular. I should, however, mention, that since the printing of this 

 volume began, an account of Funafuti has been published in Professor Alexander 

 Agassiz's admirably illustrated and most valuable work, " The Coral Reefs of the 

 Tropical Pacific " (' Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard 

 College,' vol. 28, pages 212-229, Feb., 1903). 



The large coloured maps of the different islets in the atoll, surveyed by the 

 Expedition from Sydney, were executed, it should be mentioned, in that city in 

 order to have the advantage of Professor David's supervision. Thus, when received 

 in this country they were already numbered. We have, therefore, found it advisable 

 to designate the plates of scenery, &c., prepared in this country and intercalated in 

 the volume, by letters of the alphabet ; figures inserted in the text following the 

 usual course. 



Into the controversies about the development of coral reefs, those who have been 

 concerned in the preparation of this volume have not attempted to enter. They 

 have endeavoured to state facts and leave it to readers to interpret these for 

 themselves. They trust that arduous and costly as this undertaking has been, it and 

 the labours of those who have worked out its results have not been fruitless, and 

 that the mass of information now acquired will be an important addition to Natural 

 Science, At any rate the composition, zoological and chemical, of an atoll down to 

 a depth of 1114 feet has now, for the first time, been made known. For this we 

 have to thank the untiring energy of Professors Edgeworth David and Anderson 



