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~—p 
a712 CORALS AND CORAL ISLANDS. 
which island masses of coral are carried by natives up the 
mountain, to leave at the highest point reached, and also to 
mark the limits between the land of different chiefs, and are 
common from these causes, up to a height of fifteen hundred 
feet), teach us to be cautious in admitting it without a more 
particular examination of the deposit. Moreover, shells, even 
large ones, are carried far away from the sea by Hermit 
Crabs (Pagurids). 
d. Hervey and Rurutu. Groups.—These groups lie to the 
southwest and south of Tahiti. 
Mangaia is girted by an elevated coral reef three hundred 
feet in height. Mr. Williams, in his Missionary Enterprises, 
pages 48, 50 and 249, speaks of it as coral, with a small quan- 
tity of fine-grained basalt in the interior of the island; he states 
again that a broad ridge (the reef) girts the hills. 
Atiu (Wateoo of Cook) is a raised coral island. Cook 
Voy., i. 180, 197, observes, that it is “nearly like Mangaia.” 
The land near the sea is only a bank of coral ten or twelve feet 
high, and steep and rugged. The surface of the island is cov- 
ered with verdant hills and plains, with no streams. It is de- 
scribed by Williamsin his Missionary Enterprises. Mauke is 
a low elevated coral island according to Williams, and Mtiaro 
resembles Mauke. Okatutaia is a low coral island, not more 
than six or seven feet high above the beach, which is coral 
sand. It has a light-reddish soil. 
Furutu has an elevated coral reef one hundred and fifty 
feet in height, as stated by Stutchbury, and also Williams. 
Tyerman and Bennet describe the island as having a high cen- 
tral peak with lower eminences, and speak of the coral rock as 
two hundred feet high on one side of the bay and three hun- 
dred on the other (ii, 102).—Ellis says that the rocks of the in- 
terior are in part basaltic, and in part vesicular lava, il. 393. 
