Phillips. — On the Volcanoes of the Pacific. 193 



ngaia, is 2,920 ft. in height, seven miles long, and four miles 

 wide, with the usual barrier reef. Of course, there is nothing 

 to have prevented Earotonga having been upheaved 200 ft. to 

 600 ft. at the same time as Mangaia was uplifted. So with 

 Atiu or Vatiu Island in this group (latitude 19° 59' S., longi- 

 tude 158° 6' W.), whose formation much resembles Mangaia, 

 with a reef closely fringing the shore. Its highest point is 

 394 ft. above sea-level. 



I cannot say whether the sides of these two islands are 

 perpendicular or show two or more upheavals. My friend 

 Mr. Moss, the late British Eesident there, may be able to tell 

 us, but I should think they would show either one or two 

 upheavals, as nature generally acts slowly in such changes. 

 The islands at the entrance to Vavau Harbour and the heads 

 of that harbour itself are straight up and down — so much so 

 that the men-of-war use them for target-practice. I should 

 therefore suppose that this area of upheaval, when it occurred, 

 rose about 200ft. On the other hand, it may only have 

 been tilted up by slow degrees, like the western foot-coast of 

 the South American Andes, in the suj)posed crumpling or 

 buckling of the earth's crust. But the islands present so up- 

 heaved an appearance that one is led to that conclusion. A 

 careful study of the rock-formation of each islet will settle 

 the question. If the rock is old coral-formation upheaval 

 cannot be questioned. 



The 200 ft. to 300 ft. upheaval is also shown in the Austral 

 Islands, lying further to the east and southward. These islands 

 are high and fertile, Eurutu having a high central peak with 

 lower eminences sloping to the shore. Around the foot of the 

 mountains is a plam about a quarter of a mile wide, which 

 consists of coral-formation, well covered with earth washed 

 from the sides of the adjacent eminences, which has gradu- 

 ally constituted a soil teeming with luxuriant vegetation. 

 Large coral masses rise here and there, abruptly in some 

 instances, to the height of more than 200 ft. above the beach. 



The Society Islands, rising 7,000 ft. above sea-level, show 

 great ancient volcanic disturbance, but space will not allow 

 me fully to describe them now. In Tahiti, the most importaiit 

 island of the group, volcanic substances, stratified, ^roken, 

 and thrown up in the wildest disorder, are everywhere to be 

 met with. 



In the Paumotu, or Low, Archipelago there are many evi- 

 dences of upheaval, and, of course, subsidence. The soil of 

 Pitcairn Island, where the mutineers of the " Bounty " took 

 refuge, is very rich but porous, a great portion being decom- 

 posed lava, the remainder a rich black earth. I should con- 

 sider Henderson or Elizabeth Island (latitude 21° 21' S., 

 longitude 128° "19' W.) within the range of the line of up- 

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