302 "ALBATROSS" TROPICAL PACIFIC EXPEDITION. 



of Wotje Pass, but also on the islands to the north of the pass ; thej have 

 covered the shingle beach rock conglomerate edging the western face of 

 these islands. On the sea face of the outer land rim coarse shingle crops 

 out at the base of the sand dunes. 



North of Era Pass we have a repetition of the same reef flats and lines of 

 islets. These are, however, mere narrow strips, barely apparent at high 

 water from the line of breakers coming from both the lagoon side and the 

 sea face, which meet from opposite directions and thus form sand bars, as 

 north of Illeginni Island (PI. 170, fig. 4), the summits of which can be seen 

 cropping out here and there in the line of breakers (see also PI. 169, 

 figs. 3, 4). A similar condition exists at Nanuku, one of the Fiji Islands, 

 where the reef flat of the southern horn forms a submerged ridge, across 

 which the breakers of the prevailing trades roll into the lagoon side of the 

 island.' 



At Gegibli Island, north of Era Pass, the second and third lines of bars 

 and breakers must be at least three fourths of a mile from the outer land 

 rim. North of Lubu the reef flat disappears, and only here and there is 

 the presence of comparatively shallow water indicated by an occasional 

 breaker, or where it does not break, by a thin green line between two darker 

 belts of blue, indicating the position of the ridge, in from eight to ten fathoms, 

 in the extension of the wide reef flat of the western face of the atoll which 

 separates the deep lagoon from the outer sea." The islet of Tabik and the 

 chain of islands terminating with Ebadon form the narrow western point of 

 Menschikov. But few islets and bars exist on the narrow submerged reef 

 flat which runs from the northern to the western point and forms the 

 northern face of the atoll. Over this face of the atoll, as well as over 

 the northern part of the western face, the sea, driven by the trades, must 

 pour uninterruptedly. 



1 Bull, M. C. Z., XXXIIL, Pis. 103, 104. 



'^ According to the German charts there is a similar well-developed, deep channel extending along 

 the whole western face of Taongi (PI. 227, fig. 3). 



