ON CHANGES OF LEVEL IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 131 



Pylstaarfs Island, south of Tongatabu, is a small rocky islet 

 without coral. Tafua and Proby are volcanic cones, and the 

 former is still active. 



Savage Island, a little to the east of the Tonga Group, resem- 

 bles Vavau in its coral constitution and cavernous cliffs. It is 

 elevated one hundred feet.* 



Beveridge Reef, a hundred miles southeast of Savage, is low 

 coral. 



f Sa??wan Islands. — No satisfactory evidences of elevation 

 were detected about these islands. 



g. Scattered Islands, north of Samoa. 



These islands are all of coral, and several indicate an elevation 

 of one to six feet. On account of the high tides, (4 to 6 feet,) 

 the sea may give a height of ten or twelve feet to the land. 



Swain's, near latitude 11° S., is fifteen to eighteen feet above 

 the sea, where highest, and the beach is ten to twelve feet high. 

 It is a small island, with a depression at centre, but no lagoon. 

 The height proves an elevation of three to six feet. 



Fakaafo, ninety miles to the north, is fifteen feet high. The 

 coral reef-rock is raised in some places three feet above the pres- 

 ent level of the platform. Elevation at least three feet. 



Nukunono, or Duke of Clarence, near Fakaafo, was seen only 

 from shipboard. 



Oatafu, or Duke of York's, is in some parts fourteen feet high. 

 Elevation two or three feet. 



Enderhfs and Birnie's, still farther north, are twelve feet 

 high. Judging from the double slope of the beach on Enderby, 

 this island may have undergone an elevation of two feet, the 

 height of the upper slope ; yet we think it doubtful. 



Gardner's, Hull, Sydney and Nev)m J arket were visited by the 

 Expedition, but no satisfactory evidences of elevation on the first 

 three were observed. The last is stated by Captain Wilkes to be 

 twenty-five feet in height. 



h. Feejee Islands. — The proofs of an elevation of four to six 

 feet about the larger Feejee Islands, Viti Lebu and Vanua Lebu, 

 and also Ovalau, are given in our report on this group. How 

 far this rise affected other parts of the group, I have been unable 

 definitely to determine : but as the extensive barrier reefs in the 

 eastern part of the group, rarely support a green islet, they rather 

 indicate a subsidence in those parts than an elevation. 



i. Islands north of the Feejees. — Home Island, Wallis, Ellice, 

 Depeyster, and four islands on the track towards the Kingsmills, 

 were passed by the Peacock ; but from the vessel, no evidences 

 of elevation could be distinguished. The first two are high 



* Williams, pp. 275, 276. Foster estimates the height at fifty feet, and speaks of 

 a depression about the centre. 



