The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-03-19


raj harbor. Good landing places,
owing to variety of reasons, are few,
and the plant for boring is heavy,
Thus, a site which seems favorable for
that purpose may be practically mac
cessible, and the places easily reached
may not be promising in the other re-
spect. The bore hole also must be near
either the inner or the outer edge of the
atoll, Tor much water is required to
work the apparatus, and the wells in
these islands are few and unsuitable.
AT last place which seemed promis-
ing was found, the apparatus was
landed and set up-no easy task, but
the word impossible" seems hardly to
exist in the naval vocabulary and the
good will of both officers and sailors to
be ineXhaustible. Boring began on
June 8. AT first fair progress was
made, though the material pierced pre-
sented some unexpected difficulties. 1t
was anticipated that, whatever might
be the nature of the upper portion of
the atoll, zone of consolidated coral
rock would be reached at very mod
crate depth, which would be as easy
to deal with as an ordinary limestone.
'iS Neei bOiieRio hil III W SNSIl NAiC SasSSA'
of hardened Steel which had been
taken for alternative use. would readi-
ly make their way through this, and
provide continuous core for examina-
ton. No such material was found.
AT a depth of thirty-two feet they
struck coral rock, but even there it was
very far from solid; for it was, to use
Professor Sollas' words, like a coarse
sponge OF coral with wide interstices
either empty or filled with sand. This
continued for a thickness of fifty-three
feet, when a material like a quicksand
was struck. With this nothing could
be done; it clogged the crown and
choked the lining pipe. With great
difficulty-for here and there a bowl
der-like mass of coral was met with
/ they forced the tubes down another
twenty feet, to a depth of hundred
and five feet in all, and then the ex-
perts declared further progress impos-
sible. A second attempt was made on
the seward side, where the reef at the
surface appeared exceptionally strong.
But that Jared no better. At less
depth than before-sixty-five feet-they
| fell in with their old enemy, and found
| it even more intractable, SO that they
| had to cease work at still more mod
crate depth. Time and resources were
now running short-it was hopeless to
! try again. and the expedition left the
island at the end Of July.
Though the main object Of the expe-
dition had not been accomplished, one
| fact that has been ascertained is inn
| portant. The sand which checked their
progress, tofether with that abundant
| in the lagoon, is chiefly composed, not
of coral and molluscan detritus, but of
minute foraminifera and calcareous
algae. This is adverse to the SUPPOSE
ton that the lagoon is enlarged by cor
rosion. In addition to this the elabo-
rate soundings taken by the Penguin
| have made the form of the atolI per-
| fectly clear. That is not a little re-
markable. The general depth of the
ocean floor some dozen or fifteen miles
away from the island is about two
thousand fathoms. Imagine the water
| to disappear, this is what would be
seen: In the middle Of an almost level
plain rises a vast table mountain
twelve thousand feet high. It's base is
an ellipse about thirty miles long and
/ twenty-eight miles wide. The slope
above this at first is gentle; after a
time it steepens, until, at height of
| about nine thousand five hundred feet
it attains to an angle of thirty degrees.
This continues for rather over fifteen
hundred feet, and then the uppermost
part of the mountain is guarded by q
more or less preeipitous scarp, about
seven hundred feet in height, after
which the ground slopes more gently
up to the edge of large crater-like
| basin, which once contained the lagoon.
1 One other matter may be mentioned
| The slope in the lower part of this
mountain takes the usual form of a
Slightly concave curve, but for about
six hundred feet below the foot of the
cliffs it is rather convex, as If this part
received their debris How much of
this mountain is true reef? Is it only
the fortress-like mass between eight
and nine hundred feet in height? But,
if so, of what is the mountain below
made? Is 1t submarine or submerged
volcano? If so, it must have been a
huge one, for the crater could hardly
have been less than ten miles in diane
ter. 1t would not be easy, though it
would be just possible, to find paral-
| lei among terrestrial volcanoes for one
of such magnitude; but if this hypoth-
esis be adopted to account for the
foundation Of coral island, some for
midable difficulties of general eharac-
ter still remain to be encountered
If subsistence be excluded we must
suppose these volcanoes to be all sub
marine, and, if so, it is a little singular
that so large a number have APP
preached to such a convenient distance
from the surface of the ocean that the
growth of corals has become possible
namely, to within some seven or
eight hundred feet at most--for it is
not likely that the accumulation of
minute calcareous organisms on the
buried crater would, very materially
| help in raising the foundation. So the
/ principal problem still remains UNI
4 solved; but the experience gained on
the present occasion may serve to make
the next attempt a success. England.
however, owing to it's distance, is evil
IDENTIFY inconvenient as a base of opera
tions. Hence it is to be hoped that
New South Wales will take the lead in
any future effort to penetrate into the
mystery of an atoll.-London Standard.
PERSONAL
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