WOTJE. 315 



Wotje. 



Plates 178-180, figs. 7, § ; 225; 227, fg. 4 ; 228, fig. 1. 



At the time we steamed past the western horn of the lagoon there was 

 hardly any sea to show the line of demarcation of the submerged reef flat 

 rising between the lagoon and the deep blue water (PI. 228, fig. 1). The 

 light green color of the shallow water on the submerged reef formed a 

 striking contrast with the deep blue and iridescent colors on the two sides 

 of Rurick Pass. We entered Wotje by the Rurick Pass and anchored 

 about a mile inside of the lagoon in twenty-two fathoms. We could see 

 in the distance Christmas Harbor, formed by the low islands and islets of 

 the northern face of Wotje. As far back as 1817 Wotje was surveyed by 

 Kotzebue. The '• Rurick " entered the atoll through Rurick Pass, near 

 the western extremity of the south face, explored the north face of 

 the lagoon from Goat Island eastward and passed out again through 

 Schischmarev Strait. This is one of the earliest and best charts of an 

 atoll. The soundings indicated (Pi. 228, fig. 1) were all taken by the 

 " Rurick." According to the Russian chart a great part of the lagoon of 

 Wotje has a depth varying from twenty-five to twenty-eight fathoms. 

 Little notice has been taken of this atoll by writers on coral reefs, in spite 

 of the accurate information given by Lieutenant Schischmarev.^ 



Rurick Pass leads to Christmas Harbor ; no obstructions exist at that 

 end of the lagoon (PI. 228, fig. 1). The gaps between the islands on 

 the weather side appear, judging from the color of the water, to be quite 

 deep. The weather side of the lagoon is in marked contrast to the lee 

 side, where the land rim consists of only a few isolated islands thrown 

 up on the narrow reef flat which forms that side of the atoll. 



As we passed out of Rurick Pass on the following morning, the contrast 

 we had noticed the evening before in the color of the water on the two 

 sides of the passage was perhaps even more marked. On one side spread 

 the dark blue of the lagoon, on the other the still darker blue of the deep 

 water oflF the lee side, with the bright green belt indicating, on the two 



^ Otto V Kotzebue, Entdeckungs Reise, Band 2, p. 44, 1821. 



