J, S. Gardiner — Origin of Coral Reefs. 205 



plateau itself, together with the atolls and reefs of the Lacca- 

 dive Group, all spring from a second wider table at a depth of 

 about 1100 fathoms, which connects with that on which the 

 continent of India arises, and which may further extend down 

 to and include the Chagos Archipelago to the south. Of what 

 material and by what means these plateaus were formed is a 

 question to which we can as yet give no adequate answer. As 

 evidence has accumulated, it has become more and more cer- 

 tain that India was formerly connected with Madagascar. This 

 connection continued up to the commencement, at least, of the 

 Tertiary period, when a great depression must have extended 

 over the whole of the belt. Probably the contour of the 

 deeper plateau, whicli should be much larger than the charts 

 indicate, represents nearly the outline of the original land 

 before this subsidence occurred. If this be so, the deepest 

 foundations not only of the Maldives and Laccadives but also 

 of the Chagos and many reef areas near the Seychelles, owe 

 their origin to this source. This depression is not the same 

 as the slow and long continued subsidence, postulated by 

 the upholders of the Darwinian theory, for it is quite obvious 

 that the reefs of the present day are so placed that they can 

 have little or no close relation to such a depression. 



The problem now passes to the question of the formation of 

 the shallower plateau, which in the Maldives is roughly 300 

 miles in length by 65 miles in breadth. This plateau is peculiar 

 in that its area is remarkably sharply defined, sloping off evenly 

 in two to four miles outside the lines of reefs to over a thousand 

 fathoms. It is scarcely possible considering its position, swept 

 by the monsoon currents, that it owes its origin to an upgrowth 

 of organisms and deposition of sediment on the original line of 

 sinking. Consequently one is driven to the conclusion that it 

 represents an island or line of peaks left after the great depres- 

 sion took place. Again its topography equally precludes the 

 idea of a slowly progressing, long continued subsidence to form 

 the existing reefs. How and by what means could this plateau 

 be- formed from the isolated series of mounds or mountains 

 that were left after the great depression took place ? The 

 answer is supplied by the Fiji Group in which the erosive and 

 denuding action is well seen on hard volcanic as well as on 

 raised limestone rocks. Additional evidence is afforded by the 

 East Indies in which Professor Max Weber has constant occa- 

 sion to refer to former land connections and the very remarkable 

 effects of tides and currents down to several hundreds of fathoms 

 in depth. Indeed, it is not too much to say that Professor 

 Max Weber's Introduction to the Siboga Expedition Pesults, 

 taken altogether and in its entirety, points to a levelling of 

 the East Indian area down to a depth of over two hundred 



