292 CORALS AND CORAL ISLANDS. 



Howland's Island is situated in lat. 0° 51/ north, and 176° 

 32' west from Greenwich. It is about a mile and a half long 

 by half a mile wide, containing, above the crown of the beach, 

 an area of some 400 acres. The highest point is seventeen 

 feet above the reef, and ten or twelve feet above the level of 

 high tide. The general features of the island resemble 

 those of Baker's. Its surface, at least on the western side, is 

 somewhat depressed, and much of it is covered by a growth 

 of purslane, grass, and other vegetation like that on Baker's 

 Island, but considerably more abundant. Near the centre of 

 the island there are one or two thickets of leafless trees or 

 brushwood, standing eight or ten feet high, and occupying an 

 area of several acres. The tops of these trees, in which the 

 birds roost, are apparently quite dead, but the lower parts, near 

 the roots, show signs of life after every rain. The windward 

 side of the island is formed by a succession of ridges com- 

 posed of coral debris with some sand and shells, running 

 parallel to the eastern beach, each one of which may, at 

 earlier stages of the island's growth, have successively 

 formed the weather shore. Occasionally among these ridges 

 a sandy bed is met with in which some little guano is mixed. 

 On the lee side there is also a sandy margin of considerable 

 width. Bits of pumice and pieces of driftwood are scattered 

 all over the island's surface. 



The main deposit of guano occupies the middle part of 

 the island, and stretches, with some interruptions of interven- 

 ing sand, nearly from the north to the south end. Its surface 

 is even, and in many places covered by a thick growth of pur- 

 slane, whose thread-like roots abound in the guano where it 

 grows. The deposit rests on a hard coral bottom, and varies 

 in depth from six inches to four feet. The fact already ob- 

 served at Baker's, that vegetation flourishes most where the 



