38 ON CORAL REEFS AND ISLANDS. 



Washington Island.— Lat. 4° 41' N. Long. 160° 15' W. 3 

 miles by 1J, trending east and west. It is a dense cocoanut grove 

 with luxuriant shrubbery. No lagoon. The shore platform is 

 rather narrow. A point of submerged reef one and a half miles 

 long stretches out from southwest end. Could not land on account 

 -of bad weather. 



Enderby's.—S 8' S. 171° 16' W. 2| miles by 1 mile nearly, 

 trending N. N. W. and S. S. E. * form trapezoidal or nearly rectan- 

 gular. Little vegetation on any part, and but few trees. The la- 

 goon very shallow and containing no growing coral ; its shores a 

 coral mud, allowing the foot to sink in eight or ten inches, and 

 covered in places with saline incrustations. Shore platform one 

 hundred feet or less in width, and surface inclined outward at a 

 very small angle; covered with three or four feet of water at 

 high tide, and with few corals or shells ; beyond this, falls off 

 four to six feet, and then the bottom gradually inclines for one 

 hundred yards or more. The beach very high and regular ; rises 

 eight feet, at an inclination of thirty to thirty-five degrees; then 

 horizontal for eighty to two hundred, after which another rise of 

 three or four feet. It consists below of pebbles and fine sand, 

 but above of slabs and blocks of coral rock and the beach sand- 

 rock, those of the latter nearly rectangular and flat. This beach 

 sandrock occurs in layers from ten to twenty inches thick along 

 the shore, and is inclined from five to seven degrees seaward. Some 

 portions are very compact, and ring under the hammer, while 

 others enclose fragments of different sizes to a foot or more in 

 diameter. The most common coral of the beach was an Astrasa 

 with small cells, (near A. cerium, D. — the specimens were after- 

 wards lost.) There were also other Astrasas, a large lamellar 

 Madrepore, (M. cyclopea,) some fragments of which were six feet 

 square and three inches thick; also Meandrinae, Porites, &c. 

 Large trunks of transported trees lay upon the island, one of 

 which was forty feet long and four in diameter. The shore 

 platform was much intersected by channels. 



Captain Hudson obtained soundings half a mile off in two 

 tiundred fathoms ; the lead struck upon a sandy bottom but was 

 indented by coral. 



Honden, or Henuake, Paumotu Archipelago. — 'Size 3 J miles 

 by 2 miles. Oblong, five-sided; trending west-northwest. A 

 small shallow lagoon, communicating with the sea only at high 

 tide, on the west side. There are two other entrances, which 

 are seldom if ever covered with water, and appeared merely as 

 dry beds of coral rock. Height of the island, twelve feet : low- 

 est on the south side. Belt of verdure complete, and consisting 

 of large forest trees, with the Pandanus and other species, but no 

 cocoanuts ; its breadth J mile, and in some parts |. Among the 

 trees, large masses of coral rock often exposed to view, and the 



