PREFACE. 



By Professor T. G. Bonney, D.Sc, LL.D., F.R.S., Chairman of the Committee. 



The project for examining the structure of an atoll by a deep boring, as recorded in 

 this volume, began to take a definite form rather more than ten years ago in 

 a correspondence on the subject between Professor Sollas, now of Oxford, and 

 Professor Anderson Sttjakt, of the University of Sydney. The latter, though it 

 lay beyond his special sphere of work, greeted the idea with enthusiasm, and by his 

 good offices with the Government of New South Wales, obtained a promise of the 

 loan of a diamond-drill and of other facilities, without which the expenses of the 

 undertaking would have been prohibitive. The first definite step in this country 

 was made at the meeting of the British Association, held at Nottingham, in 

 September, 1893. On that occasion Professor Sollas opened a discussion in 

 Section C (Geology) on " Coral Reefs, Fossil and Recent." Its result was to 

 strengthen the conviction that the origin and history of a coral reef must remain 

 uncertain until the experiment so earnestly desired by the late Charles Darwin 

 himself* had been made, and cores brought up for examination from a boring, which 

 had been carried down to a depth of at least 600 feet. So formidable, however, did 

 the difficulties in this undertaking appear, that, but for the indomitable energy of 

 Professor Sollas it might still be among the things hoped for, and to his initiative and 

 urgency we are largely indebted for the appointment ot a Committee before the close 

 of that meeting, to " consider a project for investigating the Structure of a Coral Reef 

 by Boring and Sounding." It consisted of the following : Chairman, Professor 

 T. G. Bonney ; Secretary, Professor W. J. Sollas ; Other Members, Sir Archibald 

 Geikie, Professors A. H. Green (deceased), J. W. Judd, C. Lapworth, 

 A. C. Haddon, Boyd Dawkins, G. H. Darwin and Anderson Stuart, Captain 

 (now Admiral Sir) W. J. L. Wharton, Dr. (now Sir) J. Murray, Drs. H. Hicks 

 (deceased), and H. B. Guppy, Messrs. F. Darwin, H. O. Forbes, G C. Bourne, 

 S. HiCKSON, A. R. BiNNiE, and J. W. Gregory, and Hon. P. Fawcett. At the Oxford 

 Meeting in the following year this Committee presented an interim report, and was 

 reappointed with a grant of £10 for preliminary expenses, and the addition of the 

 following names : Drs. W. T. Blanford and (now Sir) C. Le Neve Foster, and 

 Mr. J. C. Hawkshaw. After consideration of the relative advantages of the northern 

 Maldives and Funafuti, in the light of evidence kindly supplied by Captain 

 W. J. L. Wharton, Hydrographer to the Admiralty, and by Professor Anderson 

 Stuart, as the result of inquiries made by him at Sydney, the Committee decided 



* ' Life and Letters,' vol. 3, p. 184. 



