200 Prof. T. G. Bonney. On Professor E. David's 



rooms ; and, hence, that there is no safety against the increase of the 

 organism in ordinary living rooms in which active tuberculous dust 

 is present, and in which the natural disinfectants of the bacillus, 

 fresh air and light, are not present in sufficient amount to destroy 

 their virulence. 



" Summary of Professor Edge-worth David's Preliminary Report 

 on the Results of the Boring in the Atoll of Funafuti." 

 Communicated by Professor T. G. BONNEY, F.R.S., Vice- 

 Chairman of the Coral Reef Boring Committee. Received 

 November 25, — Read November 25, 1897. 



The boring" at Funafuti, according to the latest advices, had reached 

 a depth of 643 feet. Professor David's report is tra.nscribed from 

 notes made during the progress of the work, and gives his first im- 

 pressions of the materials brought up, down to a depth of 557 fe p t v 

 which had been reached when he quitted the island to return to his 

 duties at Sydney, leaving the work in charge of his assistant. The 

 latest advices informed him that the boring was arrested at 643 feet, 

 but as it was hoped this was only for a time, we are daily expecting 

 to hear yet more gratifying news. His last letters, received during 

 the present week, give a few particulars of the materials pierced 

 between 557 and 643 feet. The work, Professor David states, often pre- 

 sented most serious difficulties, which would probably have frustrated 

 their efforts, but for the experience gained on the former occasion. 



The bore hole is situated about half a mile N.E. of the Mission 

 Church, and its height above 'sea level is about 1 foot above high 

 water mark at spring tides. The diameter is 5 inches down to 

 68 feet; it is lined with 5-inch tubing down to 118 feet, and 4-inch 

 from surface to 520 feet, so that on September 6 a 4-inch core was 

 being obtained. 



The following is a general description of the materials pierced : — 

 For about a yard at the top there was a hard coral breccia. This 

 was followed down to a depth of 40 feet by "coral reef rock," 

 into the composition of which UeKopora cerulea, with spine3 of 

 echinids and nullipores, entered largely, the last predominating over 

 the coral at from 15 to 20 feet. From 40 to 200 feet came more or 

 less sandy material, but with a variable quantity of corals. These 

 were scattered through the sand (calcareous and of organic origin; 

 foraminifera, at about 40 feet, making from one-half to two-thirds of 

 the whole) sometimes as fragments (forming occasionally a kind 

 of rubble), but sometimes in the position of growth. Between 

 120 and 130 feet, and from about 190 to 200 feet, the material 



