258 "ALBATROSS" TROPICAL PACIFIC EXPEDITION. 



Off the west shore, from the anchorage to the landing, we found huge 

 patches of corals separated by wide lanes of sand. The mode of formation 

 of the land rim of this atoll is apparently very different from that of any 

 other atoll we have examined, but, as has been shown it is only the last of 

 the successive stages in such widely different atolls as Tapeteuea and 

 Taritari. Dana mentions Maraki as one of the most characteristic and 

 prettiest of the atolls of the Pacific ; it must be remembered that he 

 described its general appearance from a chart, and had no opportunity to 

 examine the interior of the atoll, or to trace the mode of formation of its 

 secondary lagoons. 



Taritari. 



Plates 151-160 ; '223; 224., fig. 4- 



Taritari, the northernmost of the Gilbert Islands, has much the same 

 angular outline as other atolls of the Gilbert group, but runs east and west 

 (PL 224, fig. 4). It is about twelve miles in length, its western face running 

 northwesterly ten miles. The western part of the northern face is concave 

 and convex towards the eastern point of the atoll; the southern face con- 

 sists of two concave arcs projecting at the centre of the atoll in a sharp 

 point. The land rim of the southern face consists of two principal islands, 

 with islets and bars in the gaps between them forming indistinct secondary 

 lagoons (PI. 152, figs. 3, 4). The western face of the island, on which is 

 Butaritari, widens out to nearly three miles ; towards the east the land rim 

 tapers into a narrow belt less than a third of a mile in width, and ends in a 

 wider hook-shaped point. 



The eastern island is narrow, with here and there a spit running out into 

 the wide reef flat, which flanks the southern face of the lagoon, as well as 

 the eastern and western extremities of the atoll. The lagoon of Taritari is 

 full of shoals, islands, islets, and coral patches, rendering navigation extremely 

 difficult. The western face is flanked by three larger islands, and four or 

 five smaller ones, indicating in a general way the position of the broad reef 

 flat forming the western boundary of the lagoon (PI. 154, figs. 1, 2). 



South of Napuni and the adjoining islands are the broad passages which 



