SSO THE LAST CRUISE OF THE CARNEGIE 



on the horizon. The Island is one mile wide, nine miles long, 

 only fifteen feet high, and is covered with rich groves of coconut 

 trees. All through the night while we were approaching, and 

 throughout the morning as we sailed away, the sonic depth-finder 

 was kept at work mapping out a bottom-profile. The slope was 

 very steep for there was a depth of 900 meters under us when we 

 were only two miles off shore. These soundings were made to de- 

 termine the shape of the rocky pedestal on which these islands rest. 



Captain Ault announced that he planned to allow a few hours 

 for a visit to one of these islands. So we picked out from the 

 chart what we thought would be a fair sample of these unspoiled 

 coral atolls; and on the next day hove-to off Amanu. There was 

 an exciting struggle to gain an entrance to the lagoon against the 

 ebbing tide which poured through the narrow channel. The out- 

 board motor of the dinghy would gain a few yards against the 

 current only to lose it all when the little boat entered an eddy. 

 However anxious we were to make a landing, we were all fasci- 

 nated by the magnificent coral bottom beneath the dinghy. One 

 must see with his own eyes the beauty of form and color displayed 

 by these coral reefs to appreciate what we saw. 



We found no white man on Amanu; but about three hundred 

 happy, healthy natives. They were living on the products of 

 their little garden-patches and from the sale of dried copra to the 

 occasional trading-schooner that passed their way. To many 

 of us this visit will remain a vivid memory; we found ourselves 

 for the first time among the light-hearted, generous Polynesian 

 people, so famed in song and story. 



Scott went off in a dugout to the lagoon to try his hand at pearl- 

 fishing. The rest of the staff ambled about the village taking 

 moving-pictures or exchanging gifts and smiles. Paul had the 

 good fortune to receive an exquisite shell "lei," an ornamental 

 hat-band made of thousands of tiny shells, arranged in a beau- 

 tiful color pattern. These, we found later, are rarely picked up 

 by voyagers — they are ordinarily given to a young man by a 

 maiden as a symbol of betrothal. While we were wandering 

 about we saw several of the great green turtles which the natives 

 prize so highly for food. 



