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time tlie surf ceases to break on che edge of tbe reef practically its whole 
force rolls in over this even and slightly shallowing reef till it falls on 
the shore in huge erosive breakers that eat away the soil, so that Pandanus 
fence, coco-nut zone, and beach-forest all in turn disappear, and the 
waves at high tide gidnd on the, prostrate stems of huge Mimusops, 
Ficus JRiWmphii, and Dipterocarpus trees, and undermine the I’oots of 
their old companions that are still standing but that the next storm will 
lay beside those on the beach. But this active denudation no more 
indicates a sinking of the land than do the heightened reefs that cause 
the action indicate that the land has lusen, and as direct indications either 
of rising or of sinking are altogether absent we must conclude that the 
islands are at present practically stationary. But it is interesting to 
find, as one does here, in adjacent bays, such diverse indications of the 
same condition. 
There are bays of a third type in the group, few in number, however, 
and of small size, in which the water is deep quite up to the beach ; the 
sweep of the waves in these is extremely large, even when the sea outside 
is quiet, owing to the strong currents that prevail round the islands. They 
have all, as might be expected, rocky sides ; the beaches on which the 
waves break are of sand, not shingle, and owing apparently to this ex¬ 
cessive sweep of the waves the Pandanus fence and coco-nut zone at the 
head of such a bay is a good number of yards away from the beach, a 
considerable sand-bank covered with Ipomcea hiloba, Vigna lutea and 
other sand-binding species, intervening between the limits of ordinary 
tides and the woody vegetation. 
The nature of the beaches behind the numerous long, comparatively 
flat sandstone ledges, exposed at low-water and therefore not coral- 
covered, has yet to be noted. Such beaches are always of coral-shingle 
mixed with large shells, the pieces of coral being rounded or oblong and 
sometimes of considerable size. The most remarkable example of such 
a beach in this group is that at the south end and south-east corner of 
Little Coco where the sandstone reef is particularly extensive and where 
the south-west monsoon must break with singular force. This beach 
consists of an abrupt shingle wall, in many places 6 or 7 feet high, and 
yet not much wider at the base than twice its own height. Though very 
steep towards the sea-face it slopes more gradually at the back ; behind 
it at this point there stretches a low flat tract of muddy land not much 
higher than the reef itself, covered by a dense jungle of Hibiscus tiliaceus, 
Vitex Negundo, Leea, and similar shrubs, but with few trees, the whole 
loaded with tangled masses of Gassytha. The Pandanus fence is here 
particularly dense, and along with it are coco-nut trees growing on the 
shingle ; from the appearance and size of these it seems clear that, slight 
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