KWAJALONG. 297 



The northern coast juts out into a point about eighteen miles east of the 

 western point of the atoll ; the average width of the atoll is at least fifteen 

 miles. The western point forms, as do the extremities of many of the atolls 

 in the Marshalls, a sharp narrow spit, where two faces of the atoll meet 

 and run together. Similar spits exist at Namu, Mille, Ujae, and specially 

 at Arhno ; they are more or less marked in many of the other atolls. The 

 principal land rim of Menschikov atoll is on the southern part of the eastern 

 face of the atoll, and on the eastern face of the northern point ; the west 

 coast is irregularly dotted with islands and islets, following one another in 

 rapid succession. Numerous ship passes cut through the west coast, and 

 near these we find the same development of spits, sand bars, and reef 

 flats already described. 



To the east of the south pass of Menschikov ' atoll extends a long 

 line of sand bars reaching southward to Eniibuj Island. Beach rock con- 

 glomerate flanks the base of the steep beaches on that island ; large blocks 

 of shingle and of conglomerate are thrown up on the beaches ; they consist 

 of fine or coarse sand. 



We could see across the southern horn, on the opposite side of the lagoon, 

 the islands on the eastern face. The effect of the raking sea in gigantic 

 atolls like Menschikov, the axis of which is at least seventy-five miles long, 

 in accumulating sand on the lagoon side of the land rim, is well shown on 

 the land rim flat south of the south pass and in the break of the land rim 

 between Eniibuj and Kwajalong Islands. The flats are covered at low 

 water; during the northeast trades the sea breaks over them. 



A section of the beach on the south end of Enniilabegan Island shows 

 a structure characteristic of all the islands on the western land rim of 

 Menschikov atoll. The wide reef flat is covered with beach rock or con- 

 glomerate boulders ; at the base of the sea face of the beach extend outcrops 

 of beach rock and coral conglomerate topped with yellow rubble, masses of 

 beach rock conglomerate and with smaller shingle forming the summit of 

 the beach. The beach varies from nine to eleven feet in height ; from the 

 upper part of the shingle beach tongues of beach rock and conglomerate 



1 Darwin has given a figure of Menschikov atoll (PI. II., fig. 3), taken from " Krusenstern's Atlas 

 de I'Ocean Pacifique," which has been copied by Dana. Krusenstern's figure differs greatly from that 

 of later surveys (PI. 227, fig. 2). On Krusenstern's chart it is called "Is. du Prince Menchicoff." 



