TAHITI. 153 



on the western side of Taunoa Pass. The eastern barrier reef flat extends 

 eastward to the western extremity of Matavai Bay, whicli is connected with 

 Taunoa Harbor by an irregularly shaped navigable lagoon. To the south 

 of this reef flat is the harbor of Papawa ; it is much like Papiete Bay. Its 

 central part is covered by a wide reef flat dividing a northern and a southern 

 channel, leading east into Matavai Bay, and west into Taunoa harbor. 



Matavai Bay extends from Papawa Flarbor to Point Venus. It is remark- 

 able for the absence of corals along its shores. At Pipine Point, at Arue, 

 and Tahara Point we find a diminutive fringing reef; the remaining shores 

 of Matavai Bay are covered with fine volcanic sand which has been washed 

 down from the adjoining hills (PI. 87, fig. 2). From Ilaapape to Point Venus 

 a wide flat composed of volcanic .sand has covered the extension of the 

 volcanic rocks. The extremity of Point Venus is flanked Avitli a crescent- 

 shaped reef flat, nearly half a mile in its greatest width and about one mile 

 long ; on its outer face and in the sheltered cuts patches of corals occur. 

 The greater part of the corals on the reef flat have been killed by Nulli- 

 pores; it will, little by little, become covered with the volcanic sand which 

 is constantly creeping out towards the reef and will finally overwhelm it, 

 filling up the narrow lagoon channel which still separates it from the shore, 

 and connects Brander's Bay, Port Motu Au, with the eastern entrance into 

 the lagoon on the north side of Matavai Bay (PI. 209). 



Reef patches, the remnants of a former barrier reef, extend westward 

 from Venus Point parallel with the shore of Matavai Bay, forming the chain 

 of Toa Tea Reefs, but they are merely patches of Nullipores with here and 

 there diminutive coral heads which have taken no part in the building up 

 of these reefs. The slope from the shore of Matavai Bay out into deep 

 water indicates a somewhat more rapid fall from the fifteen- or twenty-fathom 

 line (PI. 209), just as it is indicated on the outer face of the barrier reef to 

 the east of Papiete, with the exception that in the range between the east- 

 ern extremity of the barrier reef of Papawa and the western face of Point 

 Venus, the reef has a depth varying from ten to sixteen or seventeen, five, 

 four, three, two, and six fathoms, showing the existence of a former barrier 

 reef flat, which has been denuded by the action of the sea constantly pound- 

 ing upon it, and by the immense rollers which run in from the northwest 



