PONAPI. 347 



The n.avigation of the lagoon, which varies greatly in width, is somewhat 

 intricate, though it is said by the pilots that the Missionary Steamer " Morn- 

 ing Herald " can navigate from the west side of Kiti Harbor as far as Port 

 Metalanim. To tlie west of the outer Kiti Harbor the flats and pools form 

 an intricate network of channels, with from three to ten fathoms of water, 

 which can be navigated from the mast-head of small schooners without diffi- 

 culty. At any rate, canoes find but little trouble in circumnavigating the 

 island by running out -from one reef harbor into the adjoining one, where 

 the lagoon channels are too narrow for them to pass. Kiti Harbor cannot 

 be entered from the lagoon to the west. From the outer entrance to Kiti 

 a tortuous passage leads into the inner harbor (PI. 230). 



To the east of the outer Kiti anchorage a similar condition exists.^ 

 As far as we could see endless patches of coral separate lanes, or leave 

 deep pools between them ; the corals on some of 

 the patches grow with great luxuriance. At other 

 places nearer the shore, towards the edge of the 

 mangrove islets, they become overwhelmed with 

 volcanic sand, and are gradually dying, forming 

 shoals and bars upon which mangroves begin to 

 grow and finally become a part of the existing 

 belt of mangrove islands off the shore. The for- 

 mation of these coral patches and their ultimate 

 connection with the belt of mangrove islets indi- 

 cates the gradual mode of formation of the belt of 

 mangrove islands along the south and west coast 



of Ponapi from the shoals of the barrier reef flat itself These coral patches 

 have grown up wherever the conditions were favorable, and increased in 

 size, laterally and vertically ; when they reach the surface they are either 

 killed by exposure to the sun or are overwhelmed by volcanic silt. The 

 dead corals are then in their turn cemented by Nullipores ; living corals 

 flourish only down to a comparatively moderate depth ; as the silt settles in 



1 See tlie view of the great reef flat east of the anchorage in Kiti Harbor, given in the Atlas 

 of the " Voyage de la Coquille," Plates 49 and 60, giving a general view of Ponapi, as seen from the 

 same anchorage. 



