TAKUME. 91 



Takume- 



Plates 56, 57; 58, fig. 2; ^01, 203, 205. 



Takume is marked for the great number of the islands and islets which 

 form the land rim on the lee side, from forty-five to fifty, a far greater num- 

 ber for that length of face than we have seen anywhere in the Paumotus. 

 On atolls, which, like Takume,^ run from the southwest to the northeast the 

 land rim is mainly on the lee side and only partly on the weather side ; on 

 atolls which run in the opposite direction the land rim is usually best devel- 

 oped on the northern and eastern faces, which may be considered the lee 

 side, the southwestern extremity being usually bounded by low bare reef flats 

 with but few islands and islets. This atoll is about twelve miles long, quite 

 narrow, not more than two and a half to three miles at its greatest width. 

 A large island occupies the greater part of the northern point of the atoll ; 

 its weather face is one long line of low reef flats hardly bare at low water. 

 This atoll has always been described as a splendid example of a closed atoll 

 without an entrance. If it is intended by that to denote that boats cannot 

 enter the lagoon, such is really the case ; but the amount of water which 

 pours in over the weather side of this atoll is something enormous, and 

 numberless passages on the lee side allow free exit to the water, which is 

 driven into the lagoon over the weather reef flat. We steamed around 

 this atoll, and from its elongated and narrow shape were able to take 

 excellent views of the two sides of the islands and islets both on the lee 

 and weather face of the atoll. 



The southwestern point of Takume is formed by a reef flat extending 

 east from the southernmost island. It varies in width from 100 to more 

 than 300 feet. The island terminates in a high steep beach covered by coral 

 shingle, at the base of which crops out the old ledge. On the other side of 

 the southwestern horn the inner limits of the reef flat are indicated by a line 

 of sand bars, and adjoining islands of the western face are separated by gaps 

 more or less wide, similar to those we described at Rangiroa, in which the 

 old ledge crops out. The surf washes freely into the lagoon over the east 



1 H. O. Chart 83, sketch by Wilkes. 



