132 ' CORALS AND CORAL ISLANDS. 



most finished state ; the lake rests quietly within its circle of 

 palms, hardly ruffled by the storms that madden the surround- 

 ing ocean. 



From the islands with small lagoons, there is every variety 

 in gradation down to those in which there is no trace of a 

 lagoon. These simple banks of coral are the smallest of coral 

 islands. In all the larger islands the windward side is the 

 highest ; and sometimes it is wooded and habitable throughout 

 when the leeward reef is bare. The entrances to the lagoons 

 are accordingly on the leeward side. 



A single group of islands, the Gilbert or Kingsmill, affords 

 good examples of the principal varieties. It is at once seen 

 from these examples that atolls are not annular. In the 

 southernmost, Tapateuea, the form is very narrow, the length 

 being thirty-three miles, with the width of the southern pordou 

 scarcely exceeding six miles, and that of the northern more 

 than one-half less. The emerged land is confined to one side, 

 the eastern or windward, and consists of a series of islets 

 upon the eastern line of coral reef. The western side is for 

 the most part several feet under water, and there is hardly a 

 proper lagoon. Sailing by the island, to windward, the patches 

 of verdure, thus strung together, seem to rise out of a long 

 white litie of breakers, the sea surging violently against the 

 unseen coral reef upon which they rest. 



Nonouti, the next island north, is about twenty miles long 

 by eight broad. The rim of land, though in fewer islets, is 

 similar to that of Tapateuea in being confined to the reef 

 fronting north-east. The reef of the opposite side, though bare 

 of vegetation, stands near low-tide level, and the whole incloses 

 a large lagoon. 



Aranuka and Apamama, though smaller than Nonouti, have 

 the same general character. Aranuka is triangular in shape, 

 and has an islet on the western point or cape, which is 

 quite prominent. Apamama differs from either of the pre- 

 ceding in having two narrow ship entrances to the lagoon, one 

 through the north-western reef, and another through the 

 south-western. 



