T. W. Vaughan — Origin of Barrier Coral Reefs. 135 



problem by his article, "Factors in movements of the strand 

 line and their results in the Pleistocene and post-Pleistocene."* 

 As so large a proportion of present day shore lines shows 

 evidence of submergence, it appears that the phenomena 

 can not be explained by appeal to local causes alone or to 

 deglaciation as the only general cause, but that there must 

 have been some diastrophic change in the earth which has 

 resulted in the sea overflowing the marginal land areas in 

 geologically Recent time. Although persistent investigation 

 of shore-line phenomena may render possible the discrimination 

 of effects which may be due to general from those which may 

 be due to local causes, it is probable that the understanding of 

 whatever general causes there may be is conditioned on advance 

 in knowledge of the physical history of the earth. 



Art. YI. — Relations of Coral Reefs to Crust Movements 

 in the Fiji Islands; by E. C. Andrews^ Sydney, New 

 South Wales. 



In 1898, the writer, in company with Mr. B. Sawyer, now 

 Superintendent of the Mount Lyell Copper Mine, Tasmania, 

 made certain geological observations in eastern Fiji on behalf 

 of the late Professor Alexander Agassiz. The results of the 

 work, together with a preface by Professor T. W. Edgeworth 

 David, of Sydney University, were published under the title 

 of " Notes on the Limestones and General Geology of the Fiji 

 Islands, with special reference to the Lau Group " in the 

 Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, at Harvard 

 College, vol. xxxviii, 1900, with 39 plates. 



The general conclusions reached in that report for the east- 

 ern islands of Fiji were that the whole of the group had been 

 built upon a submarine platform consisting, in part, of volcanic 

 rocks upon which bedded limestones and volcanic ash had been 

 deposited ; that these beds had been tilted, forming islands ; 

 and that, at a later period, the eastern islands of the group had 

 been elevated, with pauses, during which fringing coral reefs 



* This Journal (4), vol. xl, pp. 1-22, July, 1915. 



f The article immediately preceding this has been prepared in response to 

 the request of the editor, that I write a brief introduction to Mr. Andrews' 

 article so that its bearing on coral-reef theory might be obvious to those who 

 have not a detailed acquaintance with the widely-scattered literature on the 

 subject. An attempt was made to convey the desired information in one or 

 two paragraphs, but as the subject is complex that was not practicable. 



T. Wayland Vaughan. 



