APAMAMA. 243 



on the east and on the west, are formed of the same beach rock conglomerate 

 we noticed on the eastern face. Behind the village the dam (it can hardly 

 be called a dam now) has a width of nearly half a mile, and has increased to 

 such an extent as to form a wide land rim extending as far into the lagoon 

 as any part of the outer land rim. Messrs. Mayer and Moore, who landed 

 in this bay, reported that they saw nothing but modern beach rock or con- 

 glomerate on the edges of the bay, some of it slightly elevated. In the 

 centre of the land rim behind the village, an imperfectly cemented beach 

 rock conglomerate was noticed, and masses of coral shingle and small frag- 

 ments of corals well weathered, but no traces of the old ledge were seen in 

 this part of the island. The beach sand is fine, and the beach rock con- 

 glomerate or breccia is not composed of specially large fragments. The 

 reef flat at this point is at least 150 yards wide, and the bay about 200, 

 while the land belt from the lagoon to the village is about 250 yards in 

 width. Back of the village a number of sinks were observed from 50 to 

 over 100 feet in length. One of them is at least 125 feet long and 40 wide, 

 the depth being about 18 inches. The sinks contain more or less brackish 

 water. Immediately behind the sea face of the beach similar sink holes 

 were observed with a number of pools of brackish water ; some of them are 

 fully eight feet deep ; they have steep slopes at an angle of even 30°. It is 

 very probable that these sink holes and pools represent parts of the old 

 secondary platform lagoon or of the old lagoon bay when it was filled with 

 islets and islands now connected together to form the main land rim. On 

 the eastern side of the bay there is a sand bar enclosing a remnant of one 

 of these small secondary lagoons, such as we have described from the 

 eastern side of the island. This secondary lagoon is about 200 feet long, 

 40 feet wide, and, perhaps, three feet deep. We have observed similar 

 sinks or troughs at Nukutavake, Fakarava, and islands in the Gilbert and 

 Marshall groups. 



On the lagoon side of the bay the coral sand is rather coarse, while on 

 the bay side was found the finest sand yet seen on the sea face of these 

 atolls. The beaches on the sea face of the bay, and on the spits on each 

 side of it, have been thrown up far above the level of the land immediately 

 behind it. The depth of water on the reef shelf enclosing this bay is only 



