THE PAUMOTUS. 19 



of the elevation of the Paumotus. This would render the explanation I 

 have given less evident had I not the experience of the Fiji group to 

 guide me. Evidence of this elevation is found at the two extremities and 

 at many intermediate points of the Paumotu plateau, at Makatea and at 

 Niau, elevated islands consisting of tertiary coralliferous limestone, at the 

 Gambier Islands, which are volcanic islands of considerable height (over 

 1300 feet), and at Henderson Island. Furthermore, as we shall see, there 

 are other islands and atolls in the Paumotu group showing traces of this 

 elevation, so that I am, at any rate, justified in denying that the Paumotus 

 are situated in an area of subsidence, and that subsidence has been the great 

 factor, as is maintained by Darwin and Dana, in the formation of the char- 

 acteristic atolls of the group. 



It may be well to point out also that the western part of the Paumotus, 

 like the Marquesas on one side and the Society Islands on the other, are 

 situated upon a plateau rising from an oceanic basin which surrounds them, 

 with a depth of from 2300 to 2500 fathoms, the plateau itself having a 

 depth of 1200 to 1500 fathoms. For the differences which distinguish the 

 plateaus of these groups I refer to the accompanying diagrams (Figs. 1-12). 



From Makatea, we visited Niau, Apataki, Tikei, Fakarava, Anaa, Ta- 

 hanea, Raroia, Takume, Taenga, Makemo, Tekokota, Hikueru, Marokau, 

 Hao, Aki-Aki, Nukutavake, going as far east as Pinaki, when we turned 

 westward again to Nukutij)ipi. 



On arriving at Pinaki we decided to give up the exploration of the 

 eastern extremity of the Paumotus, and not to make our contemplated visit 

 to the Gambier Islands, our time having been greatly curtailed by delays at 

 Fakarava and Makemo, from bad weather and the non-arrival of our coal 

 supply. We therefore reluctantly turned westward again and made for the 

 Gloucester Islands. These, as well as Hereheretue, proved most interesting ; 

 they formed, as it were, an epitome of what we had seen on a gigantic 

 scale in the larger atolls of tlie western and central Paumotus. We could 

 see at a glance in such small atolls as Nukutipipi and Anu-Anurunga the 

 connection between structural features which, in an atoll of 40 miles in 

 length and from 10 to 15 miles in width, it was often difficult to determine. 



We anchored in Fakarava and Makemo lagoons, spending a number of 



