Chapter 19

“‘Coquille’s’ Atlas,” a reef is engraved close to the shore: this island is not mentioned in the list given by Mr. Williams (page 16) in the “Narrative of Missionary Enterprise;” nature doubtful. As it is so near Atiu, it has been unavoidably coloured red.— _Rarotonga;_ Mr. Williams informs me that it is a lofty basaltic island with an attached reef; coloured red.—There are three islands, _Rourouti_, _Roxburgh_, and _Hull_, of which I have not been able to obtain any account, and have left them uncoloured. Hull Island, in the French chart, is written with small letters as being low.—_Mangaia;_ height about three hundred feet; “the surrounding reef joins the shore” (Williams, “Narrative,” page 18); coloured red.—_Rimetara;_ Mr. Williams informs me that the reef is rather close to the shore; but, from information given me by Mr. Ellis, the reef does not appear to be quite so closely attached to it as in the foregoing cases: the island is about three hundred feet high (“Naut. Mag.” 1839, page 738); coloured red.—_Rurutu;_ Mr. Williams and Mr. Ellis inform me that this island has an attached reef; coloured red. It is described by Cook under the name of Oheteroa: he says it is not surrounded, like the neighbouring islands by a reef; he must have meant a distant reef.—_Toubouai;_ in Cook’s chart (“Second Voyage,” volume ii., page 2) the reef is laid down in part one mile, and in part two miles from the shore. Mr. Ellis (“Polynes. Res.” volume iii., page 381) says the low land round the base of the island is very extensive; and this gentleman informs me that the water within the reef appears deep; coloured blue.—_Raivaivai_, or Vivitao; Mr. Williams informs me that the reef is here distant: Mr. Ellis, however, says that this is certainly not the case on one side of the island; and he believes that the water within the reef is not deep; hence I have left it uncoloured.—_Lancaster_ Reef, described in “Naut. Mag.” 1833 (page 693), as an extensive crescent-formed coral-reef. I have not coloured it.—_Rapa_, or Oparree; from the accounts given of it by Ellis and Vancouver, there does not appear to be any reef.—_I. de Bass_ is an adjoining island, of which I cannot find any account.—_Kemin_ Island; Krusenstern seems hardly to know its position, and gives no further particulars.

ISLANDS BETWEEN _the Low and Gilbert Archipelagoes_.

_Caroline_ Island (10° S., 150° W.) is described by Mr. F.D. Bennett (“Geographical Journal”, volume vii., page 225) as containing a fine lagoon; coloured blue.—_Flint_ Island (11° S., 151° W.); Krusenstern believes that it is the same with _Peregrino_, which is described by Quiros (Burney’s “Chron. Hist.” volume ii., page 283) as “a cluster of small islands connected by a reef, and forming a lagoon in the middle;” coloured blue.—_Wostock_ is an island a little more than half a mile in diameter, and apparently quite flat and low, and was discovered by Bellinghausen; it is situated a little west of Caroline Island, but it is not placed on the French charts; I have not coloured it, although I entertain little doubt from the chart of Bellinghausen, that it originally contained a small lagoon.—_Penrhyn_ Island (9° S., 158° W.); a plan of it in the “Atlas of the First Voyage” of Kotzebue, shows that it is an atoll; blue.— _Starbuck_ Island (5° S., 156° W.) is described in Byron’s “Voyage in the ‘Blonde’” (page 206) as formed of a flat coral-rock, with no trees; the height not given; not coloured.—_Malden_ Island (4° S., 154° W.); in the same voyage (page 205) this island is said to be of coral formation, and no part above forty feet high; I have not ventured to colour it, although, from being of coral-formation, it is probably fringed; in which case it should be red.—_Jarvis_, or _Bunker_ Island (0° 20′ S., 160° W.) is described by Mr. F.D. Bennett (“Geographical Journal”, volume vii., page 227) as a narrow, low strip of coral-formation; not coloured.—_Brook_, is a small low island between the two latter; the position, and perhaps even the existence of it is doubtful; not coloured.—_Pescado_ and _Humphrey_ Islands; I can find out nothing about these islands, except that the latter appears to be small and low; not coloured.—_Rearson_, or Grand Duke Alexander’s (10 S., 161° W.); an atoll, of which a plan is given by Bellinghausen; blue.— _Souvoroff_ Islands (13° S., 163° W.); Admiral Krusenstern, in the most obliging manner, obtained for me an account of these islands from Admiral Lazareff, who discovered them. They consist of five very low islands of coral-formation, two of which are connected by a reef, with deep water close to it. They do not surround a lagoon, but are so placed that a line drawn through them includes an oval space, part of which is shallow; these islets, therefore, probably once (as is the case with some of the islands in the Caroline Archipelago) formed a single atoll; but I have not coloured them.—_Danger_ Island (10° S., 166° W.); described as low by Commodore Byron, and more lately surveyed by Bellinghausen; it is a small atoll with three islets on it; blue.—_Clarence_ Island (9° S., 172° W.); discovered in the “Pandora” (G. Hamilton’s “Voyage,” page 75): it is said, “in running along the land, we saw several canoes crossing the _lagoons;_” as this island is in the close vicinity of other low islands, and as it is said, that the natives make reservoirs of water in old cocoa-nut trees (which shows the nature of the land), I have no doubt it is an atoll, and have coloured it blue. _York_ Island (8° S., 172° W.) is described by Commodore Byron (chapter x. of his “Voyage”) as an atoll; blue.—_Sydney_ Island (4° S., 172° W.) is about three miles in diameter, with its interior occupied by a lagoon (Captain Tromelin, “Annal. Marit.” 1829, page 297); blue.—_Phœnix_ Island (4° S., 171° W.) is nearly circular, low, sandy, not more than two miles in diameter, and very steep outside (Tromelin, “Annal. Marit.” 1829, page 297); it may be inferred that this island originally contained a lagoon, but I have not coloured it.—_New Nantucket_ (0° 15′ N., 174° W.). From the French chart it must be a low island; I can find nothing more about it or about _Mary_ Island; both uncoloured.—_Gardner_ Island (5° S., 174° W.) from its position is certainly the same as _Kemin_ Island described (Krusenstern, page 435, Appen. to Mem., published 1827) as having a lagoon in its centre; blue.

ISLANDS SOUTH _of the Sandwich Archipelago_.

_Christmas_ Island (2° N., 157° W.). Captain Cook, in his “Third Voyage” (Volume ii., chapter x.), has given a detailed account of this atoll. The breadth of the islets on the reef is unusually great, and the sea near it does not deepen so suddenly as is generally the case. It has more lately been visited by Mr. F.D. Bennett (“Geographical Journal,” volume vii., page 226); and he assures me that it is low and of coral-formation: I particularly mention this, because it is engraved with a capital letter, signifying a high island, in D’Urville and Lottin’s chart. Mr. Couthouy, also, has given some account of it (“Remarks,” page 46) from the Hawaiian “Spectator”; he believes it has lately undergone a small elevation, but his evidence does not appear to me satisfactory; the deepest part of the lagoon is said to be only ten feet; nevertheless, I have coloured it blue.—_Fanning_ Island (4° N., 158° W.) according to Captain Tromelin (“Ann. Maritim.” 1829, page 283), is an atoll: his account as observed by Krusenstern, differs from that given in Fanning’s “Voyage” (page 224), which, however, is far from clear; coloured blue.— _Washington_ Island (4° N., 159° W.) is engraved as a low island in D’Urville’s chart, but is described by Fanning (page 226) as having a much greater elevation than Fanning Island, and hence I presume it is not an atoll; not coloured.—_Palmyra_ Island (6° N., 162° W.) is an atoll divided into two parts (Krusenstern’s “Mem. Suppl.” page 50, also Fanning’s “Voyage,” page 233); blue.—_Smyth’s_ or Johnston’s Islands (17° N., 170° W.). Captain Smyth, R.N., has had the kindness to inform me that they consist of two very low, small islands, with a dangerous reef off the east end of them. Captain Smyth does not recollect whether these islets, together with the reef, surrounded a lagoon; uncoloured.

SANDWICH ARCHIPELAGO.—_Hawaii;_ in the chart in Freycinet’s “Atlas,” small portions of the coast are fringed by reefs; and in the accompanying “Hydrog. Memoir,” reefs are mentioned in several places, and the coral is said to injure the cables. On one side of the islet of Kohaihai there is a bank of sand and coral with five feet water on it, running parallel to the shore, and leaving a channel of about fifteen feet deep within. I have coloured this island red, but it is very much less perfectly fringed than others of the group.—_Maui;_ in Freycinet’s chart of the anchorage of Raheina, two or three miles of coast are seen to be fringed; and in the “Hydrog. Memoir,” “banks of coral along shore” are spoken of. Mr. F.D. Bennett informs me that the reefs, on an average, extend about a quarter of a mile from the beach; the land is not very steep, and outside the reefs the sea does not become deep very suddenly; coloured red.—_Morotoi_, I presume, is fringed: Freycinet speaks of the breakers extending along the shore at a little distance from it. From the chart, I believe it is fringed; coloured red.—_Oahu;_ Freycinet, in his “Hydrog. Memoir,” mentions some of the reefs. Mr. F.D. Bennett informs me that the shore is skirted for forty or fifty miles in length. There is even a harbour for ships formed by the reefs, but it is at the mouth of a valley; red.—_Atooi_, in La Peyrouse’s charts, is represented as fringed by a reef, in the same manner as Oahu and Morotoi; and this, as I have been informed by Mr. Ellis, on part at least of the shore, is of coral-formation: the reef does not leave a deep channel within; red.—_Oneehow;_ Mr. Ellis believes that this island is also fringed by a coral-reef: considering its close proximity to the other islands, I have ventured to colour it red. I have in vain consulted the works of Cook, Vancouver, La Peyrouse, and Lisiansky, for any satisfactory account of the small islands and reefs, which lie scattered in a N.W. line prolonged from the Sandwich group, and hence have left them uncoloured, with one exception; for I am indebted to Mr. F.D. Bennett for informing me of an atoll-formed reef, in latitude 28° 22′, longitude 178° 30′ W., on which the “Gledstanes” was wrecked in 1837. It is apparently of large size, and extends in a N.W. and S.E. line: very few islets have been formed on it. The lagoon seems to be shallow; at least, the deepest part which was surveyed was only three fathoms. Mr. Couthouy (“Remarks,” page 38) describes this island under the name of _Ocean_ island. Considerable doubts should be entertained regarding the nature of a reef of this kind, with a very shallow lagoon, and standing far from any other atoll, on account of the possibility of a crater or flat bank of rock lying at the proper depth beneath the surface of the water, thus affording a foundation for a ring-formed coral-reef. I have, however, thought myself compelled, from its large size and symmetrical outline, to colour it blue.

SAMOA or NAVIGATOR GROUP.—Kotzebue, in his “Second Voyage,” contrasts the structure of these islands with many others in the Pacific, in not being furnished with harbours for ships, formed by distant coral-reefs. The Rev. J. Williams, however, informs me, that coral-reefs do occur in irregular patches on the shores of these islands; but that they do not form a continuous band, as round Mangaia, and other such perfect cases of fringed islands. From the charts accompanying La Peyrouse’s “Voyage,” it appears that the north shore of _Savaii_, _Maouna_, _Orosenga_, and _Mannua_, are fringed by reefs. La Peyrouse, speaking of Maouna (page 126), says that the coral-reef surrounding its shores, almost touches the beach; and is breached in front of the little coves and streams, forming passages for canoes, and probably even for boats. Further on (page 159), he extends the same observation to all the islands which he visited. Mr. Williams in his “Narrative,” speaks of a reef going round a small island attached to _Oyolava_, and returning again to it: all these islands have been coloured red.—A chart of _Rose_ Island, at the extreme west end of the group, is given by Freycinet, from which I should have thought that it had been an atoll; but according to Mr. Couthouy (“Remarks,” page 43), it consists of a reef, only a league in circuit, surmounted by a very few low islets; the lagoon is very shallow, and is strewed with numerous large boulders of volcanic rock. This island, therefore, probably consists of a bank of rock, a few feet submerged, with the outer margin of its upper surface fringed with reefs; hence it cannot be properly classed with atolls, in which the foundations are always supposed to lie at a depth, greater than that at which the reef-constructing polypifers can live; not coloured.

_Beveridge Reef_, 20° S., 167° W., is described in the “Naut. Mag.” (May 1833, page 442) as ten miles long in a N. and S. line, and eight wide; “in the inside of the reef there appears deep water;” there is a passage near the S.W. corner: this therefore seems to be a submerged atoll, and is coloured blue.

_Savage_ Island, 19° S., 170° W., has been described by Cook and Forster. The younger Forster (volume ii., page 163) says it is about forty feet high: he suspects that it contains a low plain, which formerly was the lagoon. The Rev. J. Williams informs me that the reef fringing its shores, resembles that round Mangaia; coloured red.

FRIENDLY ARCHIPELAGO. _Pylstaart_ Island. Judging from the chart in Freycinet’s “Atlas,” I should have supposed that it had been regularly fringed; but as nothing is said in the “Hydrog. Memoir” (or in the “Voyage” of Tasman, the discoverer) about coral-reefs, I have left it uncoloured.—_Tongatabou:_ In the “Atlas of the Voyage of the ‘Astrolabe’,” the whole south side of the island is represented as narrowly fringed by the same reef which forms an extensive platform on the northern side. The origin of this latter reef, which might have been mistaken for a barrier-reef, has already been attempted to be explained, when giving the proofs of the recent elevation of this island.— In Cook’s charts the little outlying island also of _Eoaigee_, is represented as fringed; coloured red.—_Eoua_. I cannot make out from Captain Cook’s charts and descriptions, that this island has any reef, although the bottom of the neighbouring sea seems to be corally, and the island itself is formed of coral-rock. Forster, however, distinctly (“Observations,” page 14) classes it with high islands having reefs, but it certainly is not encircled by a barrier-reef and the younger Forster (“Voyage,” volume i., page 426) says, that “a bed of coral-rocks surrounded the coast towards the landing-place.” I have therefore classed it with the fringed islands and coloured it red. The several islands lying N.W. of Tongatabou, namely _Anamouka_, _Komango_, _Kotou_, _Lefouga_, _Foa_, &c., are seen in Captain Cook’s chart to be fringed by reefs, in several of them are connected together. From the various statements in the first volume of Cook’s “Third Voyage,” and especially in the fourth and sixth chapters, it appears that these reefs are of coral-formation, and certainly do not belong to the barrier class; coloured red.—_Toufoua_ & _Kao_, forming the western part of the group, according to Forster have no reefs; the former is an active volcano.—_Vavao_. There is a chart of this singularly formed island, by Espinoza: according to Mr. Williams it consists of coral-rock: the Chevalier Dillon informs me that it is not fringed; not coloured. Nor are the islands of _Latte_ and _Amargura_, for I have not seen plans on a large scale of them, and do not know whether they are fringed.

_Niouha_, 16° S., 174° W., or _Keppel_ Island of Wallis, or _Cocos_ Island. From a view and chart of this island given in Wallis’s “Voyage” (4to edition) it is evidently encircled by a reef; coloured blue: it is however remarkable that _Boscawen_ Island, immediately adjoining, has no reef of any kind; uncoloured.

_Wallis Island_, 13° S., 176° W., a chart and view of this island in Wallis’s “Voyage” (4to edition) shows that it is encircled. A view of it in the “Naut. Mag.” July 1833, page 376, shows the same fact; blue.

_Alloufatou_, or _Horn_ Island, _Onouafu_, or _Proby_ Island, and _Hunter_ Islands, lie between the Navigator and Fidji groups. I can find no distinct accounts of them.

FIDJI or VITI GROUP.—The best chart of the numerous islands of this group, will be found in the “Atlas of the ‘Astrolabe’s’ Voyage.” From this, and from the description given in the “Hydrog. Memoir,” accompanying it, it appears that many of these islands are bold and mountainous, rising to the height of between 3,000 and 4,000 feet. Most of the islands are surrounded by reefs, lying far from the land, and outside of which the ocean appears very deep. The “Astrolabe” sounded with ninety fathoms in several places about a mile from the reefs, and found no bottom. Although the depth within the reef is not laid down, it is evident from several expressions, that Captain D’Urville believes that ships could anchor within, if passages existed through the outer barriers. The Chevallier Dillon informs me that this is the case: hence I have coloured this group blue. In the S.E. part lies _Batoa_, or _Turtle_ Island of Cook (“Second Voyage,” volume ii., page 23, and chart, 4to edition) surrounded by a coral-reef, “which in some places extends two miles from the shore;” within the reef the water appears to be deep, and outside it is unfathomable; coloured pale blue. At the distance of a few miles, Captain Cook (Ibid., page 24) found a circular coral-reef, four or five leagues in circuit, with deep water within; “in short, the bank wants only a few little islets to make it exactly like one of the half-drowned isles so often mentioned,”—namely, atolls. South of Batoa, lies the high island of _Ono_, which appears in Bellinghausen’s “Atlas” to be encircled; as do some other small islands to the south; coloured pale blue; near Ono, there is an annular reef, quite similar to the one just described in the words of Captain Cook; coloured dark blue.

_Rotoumah_, 13° S., 179° E.—From the chart in Duperrey’s “Atlas,” I thought this island was encircled, and had coloured it blue, but the Chevallier Dillon assures me that the reef is only a shore or fringing one; red.

_Independence_ Island, 10° S., 179° E., is described by Mr. G. Bennett, (“United Service Journal,” 1831, part ii., page 197) as a low island of coral-formation, it is small, and does not appear to contain a lagoon, although an opening through the reef is referred to. A lagoon probably once existed, and has since been filled up; left uncoloured.

ELLICE GROUP.—_Oscar_, _Peyster_, and _Ellice_ Islands are figured in Arrowsmith’s “Chart of the Pacific” (corrected to 1832) as atolls, and are said to be very low; blue.—_Nederlandisch_ Island. I am greatly indebted to the kindness of Admiral Krusenstern, for sending me the original documents concerning this island. From the plans given by Captains Eeg and Khremtshenko, and from the detailed account given by the former, it appears that it is a narrow coral-island, about two miles long, containing a small lagoon. The sea is very deep close to the shore, which is fronted by sharp coral-rocks. Captain Eeg compares the lagoon with that of other coral-islands; and he distinctly says, the land is “very low.” I have therefore coloured it blue. Admiral Krusenstern (“Memoir on the Pacific,” Append., 1835) states that its shores are eighty feet high; this probably arose from the height of the cocoa-nut trees, with which it is covered, being mistaken for land. —_Gran Cocal_ is said in Krusenstern’s “Memoir,” to be low, and to be surrounded by a reef; it is small, and therefore probably once contained a lagoon; uncoloured.—_St. Augustin_. From a chart and view of it, given in the “Atlas of the ‘Coquille’s’ Voyage,” it appears to be a small atoll, with its lagoon partly filled up; coloured blue.

GILBERT GROUP.—The chart of this group, given in the “Atlas of the ‘Coquille’s’ Voyage,” at once shows that it is composed of ten well characterised atolls. In D’Urville and Lottin’s chart, _Sydenham_ is written with a capital letter, signifying that it is high; but this certainly is not the case, for it is a perfectly characterised atoll, and a sketch, showing how low it is, is given in the “‘Coquille’s’ Atlas.” Some narrow strip-like reefs project from the southern side of _Drummond_ atoll, and render it irregular. The southern island of the group is called _Chase_ (in some charts, _Rotches_); of this I can find no account, but Mr. F.D. Bennett discovered (“Geographical Journal”,