OBJECTIONS TO THE THEORY OF SUBSIDENCE. 301 
Of those under six miles im length having lagoons, seven- 
teen in number, sixteen are represented as having no en- 
trances to the lagoon at low tide; and the one having an 
entrance is 5X4 miles in size. The smallest is about a mile 
in diameter. 
Of those that are six miles or over in length, twenty-nine 
in number, seventeen have channels and twelve have none. 
Those having channels are mostly over ten miles in length. 
A list of them is here given with their sizes, and also the 
proportion of the reef around the lagoon which is under 
water above one third tide, and bare at low tide,—a feature 
of much interest in this connection : — | 
ELLIcE Group. — Depeyster’s, 6X6 m.; three fourths of 
the encircling reef bare. llice’s, 9X5 m.; three fourths bare. 
GILBERT Group. — Apia, 17X7 m.; half bare. Tarawa, 
io m.; hali bare. ‘Taritari, 18X11 m.; two thirds bare. 
Apamama, 12X5m.; half bare. Tapateuea, west side mostly 
submerged. 
MarsHaLut Istanps (northern). — Pescadores, 108 m. ; 
four fifths bare. Korsakoff, 26 m.; four fifths bare. 
Paumotus. — Peacock, 15X7 m.; nearly all wooded. 
Manhii, 13X5 m.; nearly all wooded. Raraka, 6X9 m.; 
three fourths wooded. Vincennes, 139 m.; mostly wooded. 
Aratica, 18X11 m.; three fifths bare. Tiokea, 184 m.; two 
thirds wooded. Kruesenstern’s, 16X10 m.; mostly wooded. 
Dean’s (or Nairsa), 55X18 m.; half or more bare. 
h. The absence of open channels in so large a proportion 
of lagoons, and especially in lagoons of the smaller atolls, is 
fatal to the abrasion-solution theory. The method of enlarg- 
ing atolls through currents and solution can act only feebly, 
if at all, where waters have no free outlet ; and this is emi- 
nently so with the smaller atolls which have been assumed 
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