Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 60.djvu/539

Rh much more easily made, and with a far greater probability of success, if Australia instead of England be the base of operations, and I trust that before long the colony of Sydney will initiate an expedition, and we shall co-operate with them as cordially as they have done with us.

H.M.S. “ Penguin” having come to anchor in the lagoon of Funafuti on the afternoon of Thursday, the 21st of May, Captain Field at once landed with Lieutenant Dawson, Ayles (the foreman of the boring party), and myself, and Ave proceeded to make arrangements for our work on the island. A site for boring was chosen near the sandy beach of the lagoon, conATeniently situated for the landing of gear, less than half a mile to the south and west of the village of Funafuti, and near the Arillage well, which supplies a small amount of brackish but drinkable water. The work of landing was commenced the next morning, and completed by May 26. The erection of the boring apparatus was at once taken in hand, and on June 2, twelve days after our arrival on the island, all was in readiness for commencing operations. On June 3 the 6-inch tubes were driven into the sand, and by June 6 they had been advanced 30 feet; the 5-inch pipes were then entered and everything made ready for inserting the diamond crown and commencing to drill on Monday, June 8. On June 10 it Avas arranged that the Avork should proceed by shifts, so that the drilling might be carried on continuously day and night. During the first shift the crown had been advanced 20 feet, making the total depth then attained 52 feet 9 inches; during this shift fragments of highly cavernous coral rock Avere brought up in the core barrel from a depth of between 40 and 50 feet.

On June 11, a depth of 85 feet having been reached, it was found necessary to ream the hole preparatory to lining, and by June 15 the necessary reaming and lining had been completed. Up to this, although we had been somewhat disappointed at our slow rate of progress, occasioned partly by the unfavoui’able nature of the ground and partly by the frequent failure of our machinery, we had anticipated nothing worse than the possibility of finding our allotted time exhausted before we had reached a depth of 1000 feet; but noAV, on setting the crown to Avork, it very soon ceased to advance, and Ayles shortly afterwards came to me to announce that, in his opinion, the boring was a failure. Nevertheless, some further progess was subsequently made, and on Tuesday, June 16, a depth of 105 feet Avas attained. It then became once more necessary to ream and line the hole. Attempts to ream were continued all through Wednesday and Thursday but without success, sand poured into the hole and the reamer could not be driven through it. Efforts Avere made to remove