[ Hi) 1 



APPENDIX I. 



Description of Small Islands of thp] Atoll. 



FUAGEA. 



Between the islets of Fuafutii and Fuagoa, a distance of i-i miles, the platform, which is discontinuous, 

 is devoid of land except for two sand-banks. One of these, a mile or more N.W. of Fuagea, is small, and 

 has a few bushes on its summit ; the other, much nearer Fuagea, is long, low, and narrow. 



The southern half of the western rim of the atoll of Funafuti is not disconnected and broken up as is 

 the northern, but is almost continuous, being of considerable width across, and conspicuously so opposite, 

 i.e., Avest of the Mateika and Bna-Bua channels. Here the current and wind, for the greater part of the 

 year, cause the water flowing from the ocean through these wide passages and across this narrow part of 

 the lagoon, to impinge on the lagoon side of this western reef. At this place the reef has developed to 

 its widest, forming at about the middle of the part so affected quite a considerable projection lagoon- 

 wards. Here the extra width of the reef is sufticient to permit an island to be formed (Plate 1). 



This island, called Fuagea, meaning "sand place," has been compared to the shape of a pear, with the 

 stem to X.y.W. (Plate 3) ; it is essentially a sand island thrown up or widened by the wash of ocean and 

 lagoon converging at its site. The distance between this island and the ocean margin of the reef on 

 which it stands is greater than the ordinary width of the reef north and south of this point, so that it 

 would appear that the island owes its existence to the unusual width of the platform here. This acts as 

 a very wide breakwater ; on it there are, moreover, several bosses of Porifes and low breccia scarps which 

 assist also in breaking the great force of the waves during the high tides and strong westerly winds, that 

 occur from December to March, before they reach the present site of the island. On the other hand, on 

 the lagoon side, though Fuagea is directly in the course of the S.E. currents as they come rolling in 

 through the wide and deep passages above referred to, yet, as the island occupies a position a considerable 

 distance from the lagoon reef edge, it has been possible for it to retain this position, though its outline is 

 subject to variation. The island itself is thickly wooded with green cocoanut trees, especially at the south 

 end, while to the north the A'egetation diminishes in height and density l:)efore its limits are reached. 



At the time of my visit, after eight months of the S.E. trades, a long jjoint of sand (the stem of the 

 pear) projected to the N.W. without any vegetation whatever. To the south or larger end of the pear, 

 the matted roots had been undermined and the trees, cocoanut and pandanus, had fallen ; some were still 

 attached to the land surface by numerous small matted rootlets, though their tops were lying on the 

 beach. l.lais beach was here unusually steep and short, with an undoubted erosion outline, rising sharply 

 out of the water to a height of 2 to 4 feet. In a less marked degree, all along the S.E. portion of its 

 length, and on the opposite or S.AV., material is continually being removed from or added to the beach. 

 About midway on the east side is a soft coarse sandstone formed chiefly of Lithuthcunnion, such as is to 

 be found on adjacent portions of the beach ; it dips I'oughly 9° eastwards, not, however, agreeing with 

 the beach near by either in the direction of strike or angle of dip. 



AVhere it projects beyond the line of the present beach this sandstone is being eroded, and being but 

 slightly coherent, is fractured as it is shifted and so becomes broken up into fragtaents, which help to 

 make up the present beach. This is probably the cause of the increase of Liihothamnion in the lagoon 

 beach at this point, compared with what it has elsewhere on this island. There is a perceptible increase 

 in the admixture of Lifhothamnion on the ocean side as compared with the lagoon one, except near the site 

 of the Lithoihaiimiuii sandstone on the latter 



N 



