GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION: 261 



The many islands afford a peculiarly favourable region for the 

 growth of zoophytes, and the displays of reefs and living 

 corals were the most remarkable seen by the author in the 

 Pacific. 



North of the Feejees are numerous islands leading up to 

 the Carolines. They are all of coral, excepting Rotuma, 

 Home and Wallis's Islands, which are high, and have fring- 

 ing or barrier reefs. The reefs of Wallis's Island are very 

 extensive. 



The Gilbert or Kingsmill Islands, the Marshall Islands, and 

 the Carolines, about eighty in number, are all atolls, excepting 

 the three Carolines, Ponape (Pouynipete of Lutke), Kusaie 

 (or Ualan), and Truk (or Hogoleu). Between Ponape and 

 Ualan, the McAskill Islands, three in number, are of coral, but 

 sixty to 100 feet high {Miss. Herald^ 1856, p. 193). 



The westernmost of the Sandwich Islands, Kauai and Oahu, 

 have fringing reefs, while eastern Maui and the island of 

 Hawaii have but few traces of corals. On Hawaii, the only 

 spot of reef seen by us was a submerged patch off the southern 

 cape of Hilo Bay. We have already attributed the absence of 

 corals to the volcanic character of the island. The small islands 

 to the north-west of Kauai are represented as coral reefs, ex- 

 cepting the rQcks Necker and Bird Island ; the line stretches on 

 to 28° 30' N., the northern limit of the coral seas. Lisiansky's 

 Voyage, i8o3-'6 in the Nrua, 4to., London, 1814, pp. 254, 

 256, contains an account of some of these islands ; also the 

 Hawataji Spectator, vol. i. ; and also a " Report to the U. S. 

 Bureau of Navigation," December, 1867, by Captain William 

 Reynolds, U.S.N., partially reproduced in the Ame^-icaJi Journal 

 of Science for 187 1, vol. ii., p. 380. 



The Ladrones, like the Hawaian Group, constitute a line or 

 linear series of islands, one end of which has been long free 

 from volcanic action, while the other has still its smoking 

 cones. The appearances of recent igneous action increase 

 therefore as we go northward, and the extent of the coral reefs 

 increase as we go southward ; no reefs occur about the northern- 

 most islands, while they are quite extensive on the shores of 



