THE MARSHALL ISLANDS 271 



THE MARSHALL ISLANDS. 



Plates 161-182, figs. 1, 3; 225; 226, figs. J^-10 ; 227, 228. 



After a few days spent in coaling at Jaluit we passed about three weeks 

 in exploring the Marshall Islands, taking in turn the representative atolls of 

 the Ralick Chain to the north of Jaluit : Ailinglab Lab, Namu, Kwajalong, 

 and Rongelab, and then some of the atolls of the Ratack Chain, Likieb, 

 Wotje, and Arhno. The atolls of the Marshall group are noted for their 

 great size and the comparatively small area of the outer land rims, in 

 some of the atolls they are reduced to a few insignificant islands and islets. 



In none of the atolls of the EUice or Marshall groups, and only in a 

 few of the Gilbert Islands were we able to observe the character of the 

 underlying base forming the foundations of their land areas. In this respect 

 these groups are in striking contrast to the Paumotus, the Society and 

 Cook Islands, Nine, the Tonga, and the Fiji Islands, where the character 

 of the. underlying foundations of the land rims is readily ascertained. In 

 a group like the Marshalls, we have as our guide for the character of the 

 base rock only that of the Caroline Islands, which is volcanic, while Nauru ^ 

 and Paanopa Islands, to the west of the Gilbert and to the southwest of the 

 Marshall Islands indicate a base of tertiary limestone. 



The monotony of structure of the Marshall Islands^ is very striking. 

 They are all more or less irregular in outline, and generally run from south- 

 east to northwest, with the exception of Ailinglab Lab, Mille, Majuro, and 

 Wotje, which run east and west. But the general direction of the atolls of 

 the two chains is practically the same. They evidently are summits of a 

 line of peaks or of ridges, forming on the one side the Ralick Chain, and on 

 the other the Ratack Chain, with spurs or parallel ridges indicating the 

 line of islands which run north of Wotje to Ailuk, Utirik, Bikar, and 

 Taongi, or the line of the small atolls of Kill, Lib, Lae, Ujae, and of 



* Nauru, von Dr. Augustin Kramer. Globus, Vol. LXXIV., No. 10, September, 1898. 

 2 Plane von den Marshall Inseln; Hydrog. Amt d. Reichs Marine Amts, No. 113, 1890. 



