OCEAN SIDE OF THE ATOLL 109 



away over the broad waters of the Pacific Ocean. We 

 stand on the top of the " storm-beach," the loftiest 

 region of our island, at the imposing altitude of 10 or 

 even 15 feet, according to the state of the tide. On the 

 seaward face the storm-beach descends somewhat rapidly, 

 and near its foot a sheet of hard consolidated coral-rag 

 emerges from under it, to form a gently-sloping platform, 

 over which the tide ebbs and flows. In places this tidal 



FIG. 30. A Raised Pinnacle of Coral. 



platform rises in low cliffs, ridges, and pinnacles * of 

 fantastic shape (Fig. 30), but for the most part it presents 

 itself as a sheet of limestone, smoothed and polished by 

 the wearing action of the waves. For about fifty yards 

 from its seaward edge it is hollowed into a broad shallow 

 depression (Fig. 31), not deep enough to be called a 

 channel, and finally swells into a narrow rounded rim 

 * See footnote, p. 107. 



