TEE COMPLETED ATOLL. 291 



sins ; and also large deposits of guano from the multitudes of sea 

 birds that occupy them. Such are Jarvis's, Baker's, Ho wland's, 

 Maiden's, McKean's, Birnie's, Phoenix's, Enderby's, and 

 probably other islands in the dry central equatorial Pacific. 

 As these deposits are connected with the completion of the coral 

 island, and its accompanying reduction in size, and illustrate 

 one of the ways by which new minerals are added to a desti- 

 tute land, a few facts are. here cited from an article in the 

 American Journal of Science, volume xxxiv. (1862), by J. D. 

 Hague, who resided for several months on the islands he de- 

 scribes. 



Baker's Island is situated in lat 0° 13' north, and long. 

 176° 22 / west from Greenwich, and excepting Howland's Island, 

 forty miles distant, is very remote from any other land . It is 

 about one mile long and two-thirds of a mile wide. The sur- 

 face is nearly level ; the highest point is twenty -two feet above 

 the level of the sea, showing some evidence of elevation. 



Above the crown of the beach there is a sandy ridge 

 which encircles the guano deposit. This marginal ridge is about . 

 one hundred feet wide on the lee side of the island, and is 

 there composed of fine sand and small fragments of corals and 

 shells mixed with considerable guano ; on the eastern or wind- 

 ward side it is much wider, and formed of coarser fragments 

 of corals and shells, which, in their arrangement, present the 

 appearance of successive beach formations. Encircled by this 

 ridge lies the guano deposit occupying the central and greater 

 part of the island. The surface of this deposit is nearly even, 

 but the hard coral bottom which forms its bed has a gradual 

 slope from the borders toward the centre, or, perhaps more 

 properly, from northwest to southeast, giving the guano a va- 

 riable depth from six inches at the edges to several feet at the 

 deepest part. 



