Agassiz — Islands and Coral Reefs of the Fiji Group. 113 



Art. XVI. — The Islands and Coral Reefs of the Fiji 

 Group ; by Alexander Agassiz.* 



.... On our arrival at Suva we found the " Yaralla," a 

 twin-screw steamer of about 500 tons, chartered from the 

 Australasian United Steam Navigation Company, awaiting us. 

 We have now been about six weeks cruising among the islands, 

 and have found the boat admirably suited for our purpose. 

 During the past summer I had shipped to Australia our outfit 

 for dredging, sounding and for deep-sea towing as well as all 

 the materials necessary for preserving our collections. This 

 equipment we found safely stored in the "Yaralla." I had 

 also brought with me deep-sea tow-nets of the various patterns 

 used by the Prince of Monaco, by Dr. Giesbrecht of the 

 Naples Zoological Station, and by Hensen on the "National" 

 Expedition, in order to compare their efficiency with the Tan- 

 ner deep-sea self-closing net in use on the " Albatross" and 

 which I had adopted on my various expeditions. Unfortu- 

 nately our time here is so limited and the conditions for towing 

 at great depths among so many intercepting islands are such 

 that the results likely to be obtained seemed to make it unad- 

 visable to devote the time necessary for such a comparison. 

 Although nothing was done to test the different deep-sea self- 

 closing towing nets, yet we have made at various points along 

 our course a number of deep hauls, from 150 fathoms to the 

 surface, with the open net. A large number of hauls were 

 made off Suva which gave us an excellent collection of pelagic 

 forms, the collections of Crustacea and of Acalephs being 

 specially noteworthy. Mr. Mayer will prepare a report on the 

 Acalephs. When practicable we have also made collections on 

 the reef-Hats. of various islands and atolls. f 



I also brought to Suva a complete diamond-drill boring 

 apparatus and a competent man to superintend the work: Mr. 

 W. Eyers, recommended to us by the Sullivan Machine Co., of 

 Chicago, from whom the apparatus was obtained.^: To provide 

 against contingencies, a comparatively small hand machine 

 was sent, capable of drilling to a depth of from four to live 



* Extracts from a letter of Alexander Agassiz, dated Suva, Fiji Islands, Decem- 

 ber 15th, 1897, addressed to E. S. Dana. 



f Dr. Wm. McM. Woolworth and A. G-. Mayer accompanied me as assistants. 

 Dr. Woolworth and my son Maximilian have taken a large number of photographs 

 illustrating the physiognomy of the islands and their reefs. A selection from 

 these I shall use in my final report. 



\ I have to thank the Trustees of the Bache Fund of the National Academy of 

 Sciences at Washington for an appropriation of $1200 towards defraying a part of 

 the expenses of boring. 



Am. Jour. Scr. — Fourth Series, Vol. V, No. 26. — February, 1898. 

 8 



