404 FUNAFUTI: THE STORY OF A CORAL ATOLL. 



taken to indicate the influence of black blood. So far as we know 

 cannibals are almost always black people. 



.Returning to tlie boring party, which we left busily engaged. For 

 nearly three weeks they worked by shifts continuously night and day, 

 but at the end of that time, when the bore hole was only 105 feet deep, 

 their most arduous efforts failed to advance it farther. The difficulties 

 opposed by the nature of the ground — a mixture of flowing sand and 

 obdurate bowlders — were such that neither the good will of the work- 

 men nor the ingenuity of Ayles, the foreman, could contend against 

 them, and there was no alternative but to abandon the undertaking. 



Thinking that there might be a better prospect of success on the 

 ocean side of the reef, we determined to make a fresh attempt there, 

 and in two days, without the help of wheels and in a country without 

 roads, we succeeded in transporting the bulk of our 25 tons of machinery 

 across the island to a fresh site. The new boring commenced in hard 

 rock and at first deepened rapidly. Before long, however, it entered 

 a mixture of sand and bowlders similar to that we had previously 

 encountered, and after attaining a depth of 72 feet further progress 

 became impossible. We left the island on July 30, and on reaching 

 Fiji had the mortification to learn that we had passed on the way a 

 ship coming to our assistance with a fresh supply of machinery, which 

 our friends in Sydney had promptly dispatched on hearing of our 

 difficulties. 



Our attempt to penetrate the reef had proved a failure, but it was 

 not wholly without result. It had revealed the nature of the material 

 with which any subsequent attempts at boring would have to contend, 

 and it had added one more surprise to the history of atolls, for no one 

 had suspected that for a depth of over 100 feet the island would be 

 found to consist of more sand than coral, or in other words, that the 

 organisms which play the chief part in the construction of a coral reef 

 are not corals, but Foraminifera ! 



The expedition had other objects in view besides boring. The next 

 in importance was the investigation of the atoll by sounding. This 

 was accomplished with complete success by Captain Field. Other 

 atolls had been sounded before, but never before had an atoll been 

 sounded with such accuracy and completeness as was Funafuti on this 

 occasion. The form of the floor of the lagoon was made more exactly 

 known than that of most lakes in the British Isles. The slopes of the 

 flanks of the atoll were determined in four different directions, approxi- 

 mately at right angles to each other and running about north, south, 

 east, and west. A study of these enables us to frame a clear picture 

 of the general form of the atoll. It is a conical mountain with an oval 

 base situated at a depth of about 2,000 fathoms, measuring 30 miles in 

 length by 28 in breadth. It rises at first with a very gentle slope, but 

 gradually grows steeper as it ascends (fig. 6) till at a depth of 400 or 

 500 fathoms it begins to present precipitous faces, and above 130 to 140 

 fathoms is crowned by the almost vertical cliffs of Ohamisso's "table 



