PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 2h 
(4) The relative stability of the belts comprising the 
individual groups. 
(5) The relative stability of the island groups compared 
one with the other as from Australia to the 
Paumotus. 
(6) The nature of these structures of the South Wes- 
tern Pacific. 
(1) The variable nature of the limestones.—The observer 
is always impressed, not only with the amorphous and dense 
nature of the younger or Pleistocene reefs, but with their 
evident lack of bedding planes. Clifis of this limestone 
occur which are many hundreds of feet in height but which 
reveal no sign of bedding within them. 
The limestone may be full of corals and shells, as in the 
case of the Liku of Vavau (Tonga), or it may be dense and 
ringing under the hammer, or weathered into Karrenfelder, 
or into harsh needles and pinnacles. 
The older or Tertiary limestones may contain corals and 
shells, or they may be granular and of warm tints, such as. 
those underlying the Pleistocene reefs at Qila Qila (Fiji). 
In every case, however, they are well bedded and are totally 
unlike the coral reefs of the Pleistocene in general appear- 
ance. They are intimately associated also with bedded 
991 
** soapstones. t 
(2) Heights of Elevated Limestones.—The coral reefs of 
Pleistocene Age do not occur in elevated form on the 
western belts of the individual groups, except in a couple 
of instances, such as the Solomons and the New Hebrides,, 
where great interference of earth waves is manifest. 
Thus Australia and New Caledonia have enormous barrier 
reefs, but no reefs of Pleistocene Age in these places are 

* Andrews, E. C. The Limestones of Lau, Fiji. Bull. Mus. Comp. 
Zool. Harvard, 1900. See Plates. 
