RErOKT ON DREDGING AT FUNAFUTI. 159 



Heliopora alive from a depth of over 35 fathoms.* The occurrence, as ah'eady noted 

 by one of us (A. E, Fjnckh), of fresh fragments o^ Heliopora cccrulea on the ocean 

 beach off Funamanu Islet implies that there is a living patch of it on the ocean slope 

 there, but as neither the 1897 nor 1898 Expeditions obtained a single specimen of 

 it from the ocean slopes, it must be either of rare or very local occurrence in such a 

 situation. We consider it essentially a lagoon coral at Funafuti. 



Off Tutanga at depths chiefly of 35 fathoms our tangles brought up immense 

 quantities of living Seriatopora spinosa, Ed. and Haime. There was evidently quite 

 a zone of this coral at this level, as we repeatedly encountered it at this depth at 

 different localities in the neighbourhood of Tutanga. We also met with it at one 

 spot in the same neighbourhood at a depth of 23 fathoms. This was the deepest 

 water type of coral which could be classed as a reef former, observed by us at 

 Funafuti. Below this level we obtained on one occasion, at 46 fathoms, a live 

 Turhinaria, and very young specimens of astrsean corals were obtained at even greater 

 depths than 40 fathoms, t Only two specimens of live astreeans were observed by us 

 in the dredgings from below 40 fathoms, and it is doubtful whether the specimens 

 were really in situ, but we think they were. Even, however, if massive astrseans 

 live at such depths, it would be difficult to obtain evidence of their existence, for 

 it would be hard, on account of the frictional resistance of the sea water to the 

 passage through it of the rope by which the chisel was suspended, to break oft' even 

 with as heavy a steel chisel as the one v/e used (weighing about 80 lbs.), pieces of 

 massive living corals. At the same time, had any such corals occurred at all 

 frequently in water deeper than 20 fathoms, the chances are much in favour of our 

 having been able to obtain samples of them by means of the above apparatus. At all 

 events we satisfied ourselves that the genus Madrepora ceases to live at Funafuti, in 

 the 23arts of the reef dredged by us, below about 20 fathoms, and we are strong!}^ in 

 favour of the view that at Funafuti reef-building types of coral do not, as a rule, live 

 below 35 fathoms, the majority being limited to a zone extending from low water to 

 a depth of about 10 fathoms. 



Deep-sea corals such as Neoltelia, Balanophyllia, Caryopliyllia, Deltocyathus, &c.,| 

 were dredged by us off Fuafatu, Tutanga, and Funamanu. 



* See p. 135. 



t Basset-Sbiith has shown ('Nature,' vol. 40, p. 223) that on the Tizard Bank in the Southern 

 China Sea eighteen genera of reef corals, comprising forty species, occur alive at depths ranging from 

 20-44 fathoms. These include an Adraa. 



X As these are of frequent occurrence on the deepest parts of the submarine slope of the reef, from 

 about 40-200 fathoms, it would be very important to ascertain whether or not these are present in the 

 core from corresponding depths in the diamond-drill bore. 



[They were not found, as we can see from the tables in Dr. Hinde's Report, Section XI (pp. 320, 321), 

 and he writes, in reply to a letter making special inquiiy : " I have not recognised any deep-sea cup-corals 

 belonging to Xeolidia, Bulano].ihtjUiu, &c., in the cores." — Ed.] 



