MAEAKI. 255 



149, fig. 1; 150, fig. 1). The outer platform lagoon is full of fishes; many 

 of the natives were seen fishing along its edge as we passed. There has 

 probably been a slight elevation at Maraki corresponding to that noticed 

 in other atolls of the Ellice and Gilbert group, as some of the beach rock 

 conglomerate has been elevated far above the line of the highest high-water 

 mark (PI. 147, fig. 1). 



From the southeast horn of Maraki (PL 146, fig. 2) we turned westward, 

 skirting as close as practicable to the outer edge of the reef flat. As we 

 passed along the southern coast, we could see in the lagoon, over the belt of 

 low vegetation of the land rim, a secondary line of islands (Pis. 149, fig. 1 ; 



150, fig. 1), running parallel with the south shore, as at Tarawa. The bril- 

 liant belt of color, extending from the summit of the beach to the outer 

 Nullipore knolls, increases in brilliancy as we proceed westward. The color 

 of the carpet of many-colored corals and Nullipores is reinforced by that of 

 long lines of green and yellow Alga3, which flourish in the shallow pools left 

 by the tide on the flat between the base of the sand beach and the outer 

 edge of the reef. The knolls on the outer edge of the reef were here and 

 there gouged out by deep gullies connecting the pool of the platform lagoon 

 with the sea, but in spite of these openings there was left, even at low 

 water, a nearly continuous platform lagoon between the outer Nullipore edge 

 of the reef flat and the base of the beach (Pis. 146, figs, 2, 3 ; 148 ; 149, 

 fig. 1; 150, fig. 1). 



A section across the south shore, as we could see it from the deck of 

 the vessel, showed the outer knoll of Nullipores and Pocillipores gouged at 

 right angles to the trend of the outer reef flat, by gullies varying in 

 width from ten to fifty feet. Immediately behind the knolls, the slope dips 

 sharply to form the bottom of the platform lagoon ; it then rises uniformly 

 to the base of the sand beach ; the slope is covered with many-colored 

 rocks and fragments of beach rock and conglomerate, separated by patches 

 of yellow and green Algae, and the whole more or less covered with a 

 coating of bright-colored Nullipores. Then comes a steeper slope of white 

 coral sand, flanked at the base by beach rock and beach rock conglomerate, 

 behind which the beach rises rapidly to a height of at least seven or eight 

 feet above high-water mark. The top of the steep beach was covered with 



