Professor Sollas lead the 1896 "Funafuti Coral Reef Boring Expedition of the Royal Society", which was an expedition to Funafuti in the Ellice Islands (now known as Tuvalu) conducted by the Royal Society of London for the purpose of investigating the formation of coral reefs and the question as to whether traces of shallow water organisms could be found at depth in the coral of Pacific atolls. This investigation followed the work on the structure and distribution of coral reefs conducted by Charles Darwin in the Pacific. Drilling occurred in 1896, 1897 and 1911. The expedition conducted drilling on the atoll to take borings which it was hoped would settle the question of the formation of coral atolls. There were defects in the boring machinery and the bore penetrated only slightly more than 100 feet (approx. 31 m). In addition to reports of results of the expedition, Prof. Sollas also published "The Legendary History of Funafuti".