FAKAEAVA. 81 



recent conglomerate on the sand beaches and flats. Along the lagoon 

 side there are wide platforms of beach rock dipping slightly towards the 

 lagoon, extending out from the shore in points or flats from 600 to 700 

 feet in width. A number of shallow patches of the same are found in from 

 six to seven fathoms, rising nearly to the surface, the sides overgrown with 

 corals and I^uUipores, the corals being mainly Madrepores, Pocillipores, 

 and a few small heads of Porites. The NuUipores and coralline Algse 

 are of all coloi-s, from white to yellow, pink, or orange. 



We made a series of soundings at right angles to the lagoon shelf, 

 passing very gradually into 17 fathoms at a distance of about 2500 

 feet. At 200 feet from the shore we were in 5 fathoms, obtaining 

 8 fathoms at 500, 12 fathoms at 1000, and 16 fathoms at 2000 feet. The 

 bottom of the lagoon was sandy, consisting of decomposed beach rock and of 

 old ledge rock, with patches of NuUipores. We collected large pearl oysters 

 on which were growing two species of Madrepores, one seven inches long, 

 the other four ; the shells were said by the natives to be about five years 

 old. 



A line of soundings running in a northeasterly direction across the 

 lagoon of Fakarava, about half-way from the eastern edge to the islands 

 inside, developed from 22 to 24 fathoms. Fakarava is marked for the great 

 number of islands in the northern part of the lagoon (PI. 204). Those we 

 visited are situated about half-way across the lagoon, rather nearer the reef 

 in a northerly and westerly direction, varying from one to five miles from 

 the edge of the reef (PI. 47, fig. 1). The island group consists of a cluster 

 of ledges, of shoals, of sand banks, of islets and islands, more than forty 

 in number (PI. 46, fig. 1), all of which were visible from the point of 

 the island where we landed (PI. 47, figs. 3, 4). The islets just described 

 extend close to the north coast (PI. 204, fig. 1). They are scattered in 

 an elliptical area of from four to five miles in diameter. On some of the 

 higher sand bars a little vegetation is found, and as these islets and shofils 

 increase in size they are better covered with shrubs, and an occasional 

 cocoanut tree is found on the larger islets.^ 



' On the isolated islets having cocoanut trees, the nuts must have drifted there and found a foothold, 

 for we can trace all the stages from a single small young tree to a cluster of eight or ten, on islets 

 well isolated from the larger ones on which cocoanut trees have long been planted. 



6 



