92 ETHNOGRAPHY. 



islands as the native accounts would require. Perhaps, one of the 

 names may apply to Ocean Island, situated a few degrees to the west 

 of Taputeouea, and inhabited, as I was assured by the captain of a 

 whaler, at Oahu, by a similar people. 



The group may be subdivided into at least four clusters, between 

 which there is, at present, little communication, and the inhabitants 

 of which, though forming but one people, speaking the same general 

 language, yet differ more or less in their customs and institutions, 

 and slightly in dialect. The northern is composed of the three 

 islands of Makin, (or MAkin,} Taritari, and Tarawa ni Makin. The 

 first two are divided only by a strait two miles in width. Taritari is 

 the largest, having an extensive lagoon ; but Makin, though small, is 

 compact, with a good deal of fertile land, and is considered the metro- 

 polis. The four islands, Maraki, Apia, Tarawa, and Maiana, form 

 another cluster, of which Tarawa is the head. The island of Apa- 

 mama has connected with it, both locally and politically, the smaller 

 islands of Nonouki and Kuria. While Nonouti, Taputeouea, Nuku- 

 nau, and Peru, and, perhaps, the three remaining islands, form a 

 fourth division, of which Taputeouea may be considered the chief, 

 unless this title should be disputed by Byron's Island, of which we 

 know only that it is large arid populous. 



According to the observations of Mr. Dana, the whole group 

 belongs, physically, to the same class with Tongatabu that of coral 

 islands slightly elevated above their original level. The elevation, 

 which is only of two or three feet, is not quite so great as at Tonga, 

 but is sufficient to give to the islands a larger surface of dry land, and 

 a greater depth of soil than they would otherwise possess, or than is 

 possessed, so far as we know, by any of the other coral islands of Mi- 

 cronesia. The reefs and shoals, moreover, have their extent much 

 increased, affording harbourage to many varieties and great numbers 

 offish, lobsters, turtle, shell-fish, and sea-slugs, from which the people 

 draw a great part of their sustenance. Besides the fruits of the cocoa- 

 nut and pandanus, of which they have an abundant supply, they have 

 orchards of bread-fruit trees and plantations of taro, which afford them 

 an agreeable variety. They have also a species of purslain, of which 

 we made a salad by no means unpalatable, and on Makin they gather 

 great quantities of a nutritious berry, which they dry and make into 

 a kind of sweet cake, considered by them a delicacy. 



This abundance of food will account for the large population of the 

 group, so much greater than on most coral islands. At Taputeouea 



