288 cook's voyage to april, 



and a passage could be got into the lake, as we may 

 call it, surrounded by the reef, where a ship could 

 anchor, I should prefer this to any of the inhabited 

 islands, if the only want were refreshment ; for the 

 quantity of fish that might be procured, would be 

 sufficient; and the people might roam about unmo- 

 lested by the petulance of any inhabitants. 



The nine or ten low islots, comprehended under 

 the name of Palmerston's Island, may be reckoned 

 the heads or summits of the reef of coral rock, that 

 connects them together, covered only with a thin 

 coat of sand, yet clothed, as already observed, with 

 trees and plants; most of which are of the same sorts 

 that are found on the low grounds of the high islands 

 of this ocean. 



There are different opinions amongst ingenious 

 theorists, concerning the formation of such low 

 islands as Palmerston's. Some will have it, that, in 

 remote times, these little separate heads or islots were 

 joined, and formed one continued and more elevated 

 tract of land, which the sea, in the revolution of ages, 

 has washed away, leaving only the higher grounds; 

 which, in time, also, will, according to this theory, 

 share the same fate. Another conjecture is, that they 

 have been thrown up by earthquakes, and are the effect 

 of internal convulsions of the globe. A third opinion, 

 and which appears to me as the most probable one, 

 maintains, that they are formed from shoals, or coral 

 banks, and of consequence increasing. Without 

 mentioning the several arguments made use of in 

 support of each of these systems, I shall only describe 

 such parts of Palmerston's Island, as fell under my 

 own observation when I landed upon it. 



The foundation is, every where, a coral rock ; the 

 soil is coral sand, with which the decayed vegetables 

 have, but in a few places, intermixed, so as to form 

 any thing like mould. From this, a very strong pre- 

 sumption may be drawn, that these little spots of 

 land, are not of very ancient date, nor the remains of 



