THE COMPLETED ATOLL. Lt 
If another boat with its crew were lying at the time off the 
reef, a line, carried to it through the surf by an expert swim- 
mer, might prove a means of rescue:—and so, in 1840, we 
safely reached our ship. To those approaching such a shore in 
a boat, prudence would give the advice—first, drop, some dis- 
tance outside of the breakers, a kedge or anchor, for aid both 
in landing on, and leaving, the reef. But the bottom off a cor- 
al island is often bad anchoring ground. And then, if the 
kedge thus planted holds firm, in spite of the jerking waves, 
well and good. If not 
The accompanying plate represents a scene on Bowditch or 
Fakaafo Island, sketched by Mr. A. T. Agate, one of the artists 
of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition, and copied from Volume 
V. of Wilkes’s Narrative of the Expedition. This island is 


FAKAAFO, OR BOWDITCH ISLAND. 
the easternmost of three small atolls, situated to the north of 
the Samoan or Navigator Group, near the parallels of 84°, 9°, 
and 93° S., and between the meridians of 171° and 1723° 
