THE PAUMOTUS. 



THE PAUMOTUS. 



Plates ^-^^3, J01-J07. 



The Paumotus form a broad belt of atolls extending for nearh- a thousand 

 miles from the southeast to the northwest. Quiros, a Spanish navigator, 

 first gave notice of their existence in 1606. A number of islands of the 

 group were subsequently discovered by French and English explorers, but 

 it was not until the beginning of the last century that we have any very exact 

 information regarding the Paumotus. The most important notices are those 

 of Beechey. Fitzroy. and Wilkes, and the later surveys of the French, imder 

 who.se protectorate nearly all the islands of the group are placed. It may 

 be interesting to repeat here the more important observations of Beechey 

 and of Wilkes on the Paumotus. 



Captain Beechey.' in the " Blossom," made in 1S26 a most accurate sur- 

 vey of the Gambier group, to which but little has been added by subsequent 

 explorers.'- The Gambier Islands (PI. 207) are interesting from a historical 

 point of view, as they are stated by Darwin to have been the group which 

 gave him the first hint for the theory of subsidence as explanatory of the 

 formation of atolls and barrier reefs. 



Beechey's remarks on coral islands and coral reefs are most instructive, 

 and his views are far more accurate than those of many of his successors. It 

 is interesting to read some of his remarks on the Gambier group. Beechey 

 mentions the following shrubs and trees as found in the Paumotus : Sac- 

 charum, Achyranthus, Capparidia. Eugenia. Scjevola, Tournefortia, Convol- 

 vidus. Pemphis, Thespesia, Poron, and Lipidium. 



Beechey visited no less than twentv-nine coral islands, most of which he 

 discovered. He noticed that the so-called central sink may be due merely to 

 the piling up of the sand beaches on the sea faces above the central part of 



' Foster's observations on the formation of coral reefs are interesting historically, but have not the 

 value of Beechey's later surveys. John Reinold Foster. Observations made during a Voy.ige round the 

 World. London. 1778. 



- .See Chart of the Gambier Group, p. 133, Vol. I.. Xarrative of a Vovage to the Pacific and 

 Bering's Strait in H. M. Ship '• Blossom." London, 1831, and compare it with A. Chart 1112 (PL 207), 

 published iii 1885. 



