30 A. LIVERSIDGE. 



•equipped steamer would be able for the above sum to make a very 

 satisfactory examination of one or more of the less known groups 

 of islands, and it is a work in which this Society might assist in 

 many ways. 



Coral Reefs. — One question in the Islands which would amply 

 repay, further investigation is the origin and growth of Coral 

 Reefs ; as you are aware, until Mr. John Murray, f.r.s., of the 

 "" Challenger " expedition put forth his theory, the explanation 

 usually accepted by geologists was Darwin's subsidence theory, 

 but of late years there has been some discussion upon the question 

 and as recently as 1888, Prof. J. D wight Dana, of Yale College, 

 who was on Wilkes' Exploring Expedition in 1839-1842, revisited 

 the Sandwich Islands to verify his previous observations, and in 

 the American Journal of Science, p. 103, xxxvn., 1889, he again 

 supports Darwin's views. Dr. Guppy formerly of H.M.S. " Lark," 

 supports Mr. Murray and he too has revisited the South Seas 

 during the past year to confirm his previous observations. A 

 very valuable and interesting discussion upon the theories pro- 

 pounded by Darwin and Murray will be found in the British 

 Association Report for 1888, p. 718-723. 



Dr. C. P. Sluiter, finds that "a coral reef in the Java Sea com- 

 mences its growth on a muddy bottom in the form of a colony of 

 corals growing on the stones and sunken pumice that there lie. 

 As it increases in extent and height, it secures its own foundation 

 by its weight, a large amount of coral materials sinking into the 

 mud to a depth of even seven metres. In its upward growth it 

 presents a level top, and displays no hollow or basin, a uniformity 

 which it preserves until a foot from the surface, when it dies in 

 the centre, and the agencies dwelt upon by Murray and Agassig 

 then co-operate in forming an atoll or a barrier reef." (See H* 

 B. Guppy " Nature," p. 303, 30. 1. 90.) 



Chalk in the Pacific. — Another question, connected with the Pacific 

 islands, in which I am personally much interested, is, as to the age 

 of the chalk which occurs in New Ireland and other islands ; in 



