66 The Completed Coral Island. 



place 50 feet in diameter, from which our vessels in a few hours 

 obtained 390 gallons. The Tarawan Islands are generally provided 

 with a supply sufficient for bathing, and each native takes his morn- 

 ing bath in fresh water, esteemed by them a great luxury. 



The only source of this water is the rains, which, percolating 

 through the loose surface, settle upon the hardened coral rock that 

 forms the basis of the island. As the soil is white, or nearly so, it 

 receives heat but slowly, and there is consequently but little evapora- 

 tion of the water that is once absorbed. 



These islands, moreover, enclose ports of great extent, many 

 admitting even the largest class of vessels ; and the same lagoons 

 are the pearl fisheries of the Pacific. 



^ An occasional log drifts to their shores ; and at some of the more 

 isolated atolls, where the natives are ignorant of any land but the 

 spot they inhabit, they are deemed direct gifts from a propitiated 

 deity. These drift-logs were noticed by Kotzebue, at the Marshall 

 Islands, and he remarked also that they often brought stones in their 

 roots. Similar facts were observed by us at the Tarawan group, and 

 also at Enderby's Island, and elsewhere. 



The stones at the Tarawan Islands, as far as we could learn, are 

 generally basaltic, and they are highly valued for whetstones, pestles, 

 and hatchets. The logs are claimed by the chiefs for canoes. 

 Some of the logs on Enderby's Island were forty feet long, and four 

 in diameter. 



Fragments of pumice and resin are transported by the waves to 

 the Tarawan Islands. We were informed that the pumice was 

 gathered from the shores by the women, and pounded up to fertilize 

 the soil of their tare patches ; and it is so common, that one woman 

 will pick up a peck in a day. Pumice was also met with at Fakaafo. 

 Volcanic ashes are sometimes distributed over these islands, through 

 the atmosphere ; and in this manner the soil of the Tonga Islands is 

 improved, and in some places it has received a reddish colour. 



The officers of the *' Vincennes " observed several large masses of 

 compact and cellular basalt on Rose Island, a few degrees east of 

 Samoa : they lie two hundred yards inside of the line of breakers. 

 The island is uninhabited, and the origin of the stones is doubtful ; 

 they may have been brought there by roots of trees, or perhaps by 

 some canoe. 



Notwithstanding the great number of coral islands in the Paumotu 

 Archipelago, the botanist finds there, as Dr Pickering informs me, 

 only twenty-eight or twenty-nine native species of plants. The fol- 

 lowing are the most common of them : Portulacca^ two species ; 

 Sccevola Konigii. P^>oma .? one species ; Tournefortia sericea ; Pan- 

 danus odoratissimus ; Lepidium, one species ; Euphorhiay one 

 species ; Morinda citrifolia ; Boerhavia, two species ; Cassytha, one 

 species ; Heliotropium prostratum, Pemphis acidula, Guettarda 

 speciosa, Triumphetta procumbenSj Sauriana maritima ; Convolvu- 

 luSf one species ; Urtica, one or two species ; Asplenium nidus ; 



