THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 137 



although surrounded by more or less indistinct barrier reefs, is deeply in- 

 dented and shows perhaps as well as any of the other islands, the manner 

 in which the wide platform of erosion has little by little been formed by the 

 action of the sea. The wide barrier reef flats on the east, north, and 

 west faces of the island are separated by a comparatively shallow and nar- 

 row lagoon from the main island. On the northern part the wide barrier 

 reef flat is covered with islands more or less connected, and covered with 

 trees ; so that the slopes of the northern and eastern part of Huaheine 

 appear flanked by a wide, low, wooded platform, identical in every respect 

 with the narrow rim of wooded islands flanking some parts of the east face 

 of Tahiti and differing from them only in width and extent. We can readily 

 imagine that the time may come when all these islands and islets, extending 

 from the easternmost point of Huaheine to the northern face, will in their 

 turn become changed into such a narrow barrier reef as that characterizing 

 Tahiti. This has to a certain extent occurred on the east face of Raiatea 

 (PI. 210, fig. 2), where the outer reef platform is not well indicated, but is 

 merely outlined by a mass of patches of corals, growing at various depths ; 

 these crop out here and there, indicating the existence of a wide reef on 

 the east face, similar to that found on the west as well as on the southeast 

 face of Huaheine. 



The peninsula of Taiarapu (Tahiti), not as yet separated from Tahiti, 

 represents a stage of denudation analogous to that of Tahaa and Raiatea, 

 separated by a wide and comparatively shallow passage reaching between 

 Tahaa and Teavarua. Similarly Huaheine Nui and Huaheine Iti are still 

 connected at low water by a narrow pass, a high knoll rising across Maroe 

 Bay in the centre of the channel which divides Huaheine into two parts. 



The isthmus of Taravoa (Tahiti) is low, and the channel separating the 

 peninsula of Taiarapu from Tahiti is formed by Port Phaeton, which cuts 

 nearly across it, leaving but a narrow strip of low land uniting the 

 peninsula with Tahiti. 



It will be noted that on all the leeward islands the reef flats of the 

 northern and eastern faces are much narrower than those of the lee and 

 southern sides, the circulation over and around the reef flats of the lee side 

 being; far less active than on the weather side. On the weather faces also 



