NUKUFETAU. 229 



ings taken off any of the coral reefs do not indicate the existence of terraces. 

 Surely, if there has been a general subsidence at all corresponding to the 

 general elevation which exists in the Paumotus, the Tongas, the Fijis, the 

 Ellice. Nine, the Cook and Ladrone Islands, the successive steps of which 

 are indicated by well-marked terraces, we should find in the so-called great 

 areas of subsidence traces of the subsidence, if it has, like the elevation, 

 taken place intermittently. Even at Funafuti, where the sections off the 

 atoll are more numerous and more detailed than those off any other coral 

 reef, no such terraces have been developed. 



Nukufetau. 



Plates 139, Jigs. 2, 3; 212, fig. G ; 221. 



Nukufetau^ is somewhat triangular in outline (PI. 212, fig. 6), and 

 resembles to a certain extent Funafuti. Its main entrance is on the west 

 side, and there are no passages on the other faces of the atoll. Nukufetau 

 is about twenty-seven miles in circuit. The largest island is on the southern 

 point (PI. 121), fig. 2) ; the east flxce of the atoll is flanked by numerous islets 

 and sand banks, separated by gaps similar to those we have described before 

 (PI. 129, fig. 3). 



Nukufetau, as seen from the sea, is flanked with heavy masses of beach 

 rock alternating with reaches of sand beaches, usually topped with black 

 coral shingle. The general appearance of the beach, as seen from the sea, 

 reminds one of that of Funafuti, but the ledges are more marked and better 

 characterized as buttresses, and show, as at Funafuti, traces of a slight ele- 

 vation. As far as we could see while steaming around the island, the 

 beaches, reefs, and land rim of Nukufetau did not differ in any way from 

 tliose of Funafuti. The vegetation of Nukufetau was, however, richer than 

 that we noticed on any of the islands of Funafuti. In addition to Pisonias 

 and to cocoanut trees, large hardwood trees grew in numbers in the rear 

 of some of the beaches. 



In addition to the gaps between the islands of the land rim, the islands 

 were often separated by long ridges of beach rock constituting a more or 



1 A. Chart 766. 



