GENERAL REPOET ON THE MATERIALS SENT FROM FUNAFUTI 181 



will be discussed in the section (XII) on the chemistry of the rocks of the Funafuti 

 Atoll. 



C. Other Materials Collected from the Islets of the Funafuti Atoll and from the Ocean 



aromid it. 



Professor Sollas collected, during the first expedition to Funafuti in 1896, a very- 

 interesting series of sands, and of the consolidated coral rock of the various islets, and 

 these have been sent to me for examination. Mr. Stanley Gardiner and 

 Mr. Hedley, who accompanied the same expedition as volunteers, brought to 

 Cambridge and Sydney respectively large and valuable collections representing the 

 fauna, flora, and anthropology of Funafuti and of the other islands of the EUice 

 Group. 



Under the advice of the Coral Reef Committee, the Council of the Royal Society 

 decided that the result of the study of all the material brought home from Funafuti 

 might be published in the various scientific journals, as soon as could be conveniently 

 arranged, and there is already, as will be seen from the list given on pages 182-185, 

 a considerable body of scientific literature on the natural history of Funafuti, a large 

 number of new species and varieties having been described from the collections 

 brought home, while discussions on the geology, anthropology, and general natural 

 history of the island have been published by different authors. 



In the Second Expedition in 1897, Professor David and Mr. Sweet, besides 

 collecting specimens to illustrate their account of the geology of the various islets, 

 made special attempts to study the nature of the organisms growing on the reef face 

 down to the depth of 200 fathoms. This task proved to be a very difficult, and not 

 seldom a dangerous one, but by means of the apparatus that has been described, 

 fragments of organisms, often living, were broken from the face of the reef, and 

 brought home either in spirits or as dried specimens. All these collections have 

 been submitted to specialists at the British Museum and elsewhere, and all new 

 species that have been detected have been described in the scientific journals. 



The foraminifera from these collections have been very fully described and their 

 distribution discussed by Mr. Chapman.* The question of the distribution of other 

 forms obtained from the reef face in a living state has not yet received the attention 

 which it deserves. 



In the deep soundings carried on by Captain A. Mostyn Field, R.N., in H.M.S. 

 " Penguin," in the year 1896, when so complete a survey of the Funafuti Atoll and 

 of the surrounding sea was made, a number of small specimens of the ocean floor, 

 often at great depths, were obtained. These I have received from Admiral Sir 

 W. J. L. Wharton and Professor Sollas, and their description will be undertaken 

 by Mr. F. Chapman, who is now at Melbourne. 



* ' Linn. Soc. Journ.' (Zoology), vol. 28 (1900-03), pp. 1-27 and pp. 379-433. 



