TARAWA. 247 



crop out occasionally near the top of the beach, buried in part in the fine 

 sand, and indicating an elevation of a few feet (Pis. 139, fig. 4 ; 140, fig. 1). 

 The land rim is beautifully wooded (Pis. 139, fig 4 ; 140, fig. 1), and the 

 little islets thrown upon the bars and dams which form the secondary lagoons 

 are covered with the same trees as those which characterize the main land 

 rim of the atoll. Pandanus grow in great abundance on Maiana, and we 

 find the usual fringe of low shrubs on the top of the wide sand beach 

 (PI. 139, fig. 4); this is considerably higher than the land immediately 

 behind it. 



Tarawa. 



Plates UO,figs. 2-4; Ul-lU; 14-5, fig. 4.; 233; 221^, fig. 5. 



The atoll of Tarawa ^ is triangular in shape (PL 224, fig. 5) ; its southern 

 face runs nearly east and west, and is about fifteen miles long ; the eastern 

 face, twenty miles in length, runs from southeast to northwest ; the western 

 limit of the lagoon is indicated by a rather narrow barrier reef with from two 

 to ten fathoms of water. The position of the barrier reef is only indefinitely 

 indicated by patches of corals separating the lagoon from the sea (PI. 224, 

 fig. 5). There are several entrances into the lagoon on the west side ; many 

 shoals and islets are scattered over its surface. 



The lagoon is said to vary in depth from five to eleven fathoms. On 

 the western extremity of the southern face of the atoll a large island 

 extends into the lagoon. The southern extremity of the eastern face forms 

 a rounded horn, while the northern extremity of the atoll forms a sharp 

 point, flanked on the east by a narrow reef flat, and on the west by the 

 extension of the western reef flat of the lagoon (PI. 224, fig. 5). 



We made the south shore of Tarawa, and anchored about one eighth of a 

 mile off the principal islets of the south shore (Pis. 140, fig. 4 ; 141, fig. 1). 

 There is no reef platform proper on the south side of Tai'awa. The bottom 

 slopes very gradually seawards from the indefinite edge of the reef flat ; a 

 depth of 95 fathoms is obtained at a distance of about half a mile, and not 

 more than 200 fathoms at nearly a mile and a half from shore, a slope unlike 



'- H. O. Chart 123 ; A. Chart 732. 



