ELEVATIONS IN PACIFIC CORAL REGIONS. 375 
and long. 160° 15’ W., is three miles in diameter, and is with- 
out a proper lagoon; the whole surface is densely covered 
with cocoanut and other trees. The height of the land is ten 
or twelve feet. The unusual size of the island for one without 
a lagoon, and the luxuriance of the forest vegetation, are prob- 
able evidence of some elevation, but not beyond three feet. 
Palmyra Island, northeast of Washington, is described by 
Fanning as having two lagoons, the westernmost with twenty 
fathoms water. | 
~ Fanning’s Island, southeast of Washington, according to 
the same voyager, is lower than that island. The accounts 
give no evidence of elevation in either Fanning’s or Palmyra. 
Christmas Island, in lat. 1° 53’ N., long. 157° 32’ W., is 
thirty miles long. Cook speaks of the land as in some parts 
three miles wide, and as having narrow ridges lying parallel 
with the seacoast, which “ must have been thrown up by the 
sea, though it does not reach within a mile of some of 
these places.” The amount of elevation is uncertain. The 
account of J. D. Bennett (Geogr. Journ., vii. 226), represents 
it as a low coral island. 
Jarvis’s Island, in 0° 22’ S., and 159° 58’ W., is, ac- 
cording to J. D. Hague, eighteen to twenty-eight feet in 
height, which would indicate an elevation of at least eight 
or ten feet. See further page 291. 
Malden’s, in 4° 15’ 8., 155° W., two hundred and fifty 
miles southeast of Jarvis, visited by Lord Byron, is described 
by him as not over forty feet high. It is ten miles long. 
Starbuck's, or Hero Island, in 5° 40/ S., 155° 55’ W., is 
an elevated lagoon island; but the amount of elevation is not 
stated. Like Jarvis’s, it contains a large deposit of gypsum, 
but not much guano.—(J. D. Hague.) 
Penrhyn’s Island, near 9° 8. and 157° W., has a length 
of nine miles, and an extensive lagoon with a boat entrance 
