There is a site on Funafuti called ''Darwin's Drill'', where boreholes were drilled in 1896, 1897 and 1898, by the Royal Society of London, as part of a scientific investigation designed to find out whether traces of shallow-water organisms could be found deep down in the coral. It was intended as a test of Charles Darwin's theory of coral atoll formation. Professor Sollas, the leader of the 1896 expedition, published a report on the study of the atoll. Professor Edgeworth David of the University of Sydney was a member of the 1896 expedition, and the leader of the 1897 expedition. Photographers on the expeditions recorded people, communities and scenes at Funafuti.