AGASSIZ: FIJI ISLANDS AND CORAL REEFS., 13 



Bonney ^ similarly takes Dana's account of the easteini half of the 

 Fiji Archipelago, as if it were based upon actual observations. Dana 

 did not visit that part of Fiji, but derived his information from the sur- 

 veys of these islands made by the officers of the United States Exploring 

 Expedition. Plis statements are derived from the charts. 



TRACK OF THE " YARALLA." 



The track which we followed (Plate 1) was so arranged as to include 

 for our first trip one or two of each type of island, and of the different 

 types of atolls and barrier and fringing reefs in the group. Starting from 

 Suva the day after our arrival, we visited Mbengha, returned to Suva, and 

 went in the following order to Ovalau, Wakaya, Makongai, and Koro, 

 skirted along the western shores of Taviuni, examined the northeastern 

 coast of the same island, passed out through the Matangi Passage to 

 Motua Levu and Motua lai lai, and skirted along the western extremity 

 of the Nanuku reefs. From there we steamed to Wailangilala, where 

 we landed our boring apparatus and the crew of whites and of natives 

 needed for working the same. We then turned north, passing close to 

 Nuku Mbasanga and Adolphus Reef, and entered Ngele Levu Lagoon. 

 We next examined the Ringgold Islands, paying special attention to 

 Thombia in Budd Reef. From there we returned to a former anchorage 

 off Thurston Point on Taviuni, and followed much the same track back 

 to W^ailangilala, where w-e found our boring party settled and at work. 

 We then steamed south, examining Williamson Reef, the Kimbombo 

 islets. Bell Reef, and entered the Vanua Mbalavu Lagoon through the 

 Ngillangillah Passage. Passing out of the lagoon by the Tonga Pass, 

 we touched at Mango, Tuvutha, Naiau, and Lakemba. We steamed past 

 Aiwa, entered the Oneata Lagoon, visited Thakau Lekaleka, touched at 

 Mothe, entered the Komo Lagoon, the Yangasa Cluster, and the Ongea 

 Lagoon. We passed by Fulanga close to the entrance, which was too 



in which, as we have reason to believe, the foundations always lie at a greater 

 depth [The Italics are mine. — A. Ag.] than that at which the reef constructing 

 polyps can live." Yet Dana and Wharton, as weU as Kramer, say that it is an 

 atoll, and the charts show it to be an atoll fully as much as any similar island 

 in Fiji. So that if the islands in Fiji which resemble it, and which according to 

 Dana and my own observations are atolls, yet according to Darwin they would 

 not be so regarded, we shall have to seek for an atoU answering his requirements 

 outside of the Fiji group. 

 1 Loc. cit., p. 310. 



