336 COBALS AND CORAL ISLANDS. 



which island masses of coral are carried by natives up the 

 mountain, to leave at the highest point reached, and also to 

 mark the limits between the land of different chiefs, and are 

 common from these causes, up to a height of fifteen hundred 

 feet), teach us to be cautious in admitting it without a more 

 particular examination of the deposit. Moreover, shells, even 

 large ones, are carried far away from the sea by Hermit 

 Crabs (Pagurids). 



c. Hervey and Rurutu Groups. — These groups lie to the 

 southwest and south of Tahiti. 



Mangaia is girted by an elevated coral reef three hundred 

 feet in height. Mr. Williams, in his Missionary Enterprises, 

 pages 48, 50 and 249, speaks of it as coral, with a small quan- 

 tity of fine-grained basalt in the interior of the island ; he states 

 again that a broad ridge (the reef) girts the hills. 



Atiu (Wateoo of Cook) is a raised coral island. Cook 

 Voy., i. 180, 197, observes, that it is "nearly like Mangaia." 

 The land near the sea is only a bank of coral ten or twelve feet 

 high, and steep and rugged. The surface of the island is cov- 

 ered with verdant hills and plains, with no streams. It is de- 

 scribed by Williams in his Missionary Enterprises. Mauhe is 

 a low elevated coral island according to Williams, and Mitiaro 

 resembles Mauke. Okatutaia is a low coral island, not more 

 than six or seven feet high above the beach, which is coral 

 sand. It has a light-reddish soil. 



Murutu has an elevated coral reef one hundred and fifty 

 feet in height, as stated by Stutchbury, and also Williams. 

 Tyerman and Bennet describe the island as having a high cen- 

 tral peak with lower eminences, and speak of the coral rock as 

 two hundred feet high on one side of the bay and three hun- 

 dred on the other (ii, 102). — Ellis says that the rocks of the in- 

 terior are in part basaltic, and in part vesicular lava, iii. 393. 



