FUNAFUTI: THE STORY OF A CORAL, ATOLL.. 397 



afforded by Admiral Wharton, whose extensive knowledge of coral 

 reefs renders him the most formidable of Darwin's opponents. At his 

 suggestion our choice fell on Funafuti, one of the Ellice or Lagoon 

 Islands, situated in the middle of the Pacific (latitude 8i° S.), seven 

 days 7 sail northward of Fiji. No better selection could possibly have 

 been made. Not only is Funafuti an atoll of unexceptional character 

 itself, but it belongs to a family of atolls all of equally unexceptional 

 character; and these again to a system which includes the Gilbert and 

 Marshall islands, all of them excellent atolls. So far as these are all 

 distinguished by the same characters, Avhatever inay be found true of 

 Funafuti will apply to all the rest. 



The labors of the committee of the British Association were then 

 taken over by a committee of the Royal Society, at whose request the 

 admiralty generously assigned to our assistance the Penguin, one of 

 Her Majesty's gunboats, commanded by Captain Field, and stationed 

 in the Pacific for exploring purposes. The Eoyal Society furnished 

 funds to defray expenses, and the direction of the expedition was placed 

 in my hands; two volunteers, Mr. Gardiner, of Cambridge, and Mr. 

 Hedley, of Sydney, were, with my permission, to accompany me. 



We joined the Penguin and left Sydney on May 1, 189G, taking with 

 us a boring party which had been selected for the work by Mr. Sice, 

 the Government inspector of mines and drills. Its foreman, Ayles, 

 had acquired great reputation in the colony by his success in conduct- 

 ing boring operations of exceptional difficulty. On May 21, after three 

 weeks' voyage, we heard the welcome cry "Land ho!" and Funafuti 

 was seen on the horizon. The ship was steered for the southern 

 entrance; this was safely made, and we steamed into the noble lagoon. 

 Flying fish spurted from under our bows, and zigzagged in their dart- 

 ing flight around us; here and there in the midst of the blue waters 

 green and purple shallows marked the site of growing coral patches. 

 On the starboard side lay the beautiful island of Funafuti proper, its 

 pale sands ablaze in the light of the tropical sun, its groves of palms 

 cool with a refreshing green. A boat put off from the beach manned 

 by a crew of copper-colored natives, their black hair crowned with 

 wreaths of gardenia and hibiscus flowers. They were soon swarming 

 over our sides, bringing with them the solitary white trader of the 

 island, who safely piloted us to anchor within a mile of the shore. 

 Captain Field and a party immediately landed, and we went at once to 

 pay our respects to the king, who, notwithstanding the narrow limits 

 of his realm and the smallness of his nation, which numbers only some 

 240 souls, we found to be every inch a king. His Majesty received us 

 with gracious dignity, led us into his palace, one of the few stone huts 

 on the island, and seated us by his side on the dais, which consisted of 

 packing cases. The chief men sat round the walls on the floor, and smil- 

 ing damsels, with large black eyes, ivory white teeth, and long black 

 tresses floating loose, shyly presented us with freshly opened cocoanuts 



