362 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



regular hard trade and will, I presume, continue so now 

 for three or four days, when there will be a chance to 

 slip out again after coaling and do some work. Day be- 

 fore yesterday we steamed all round Takume (or Wol- 

 konsky, as map has it) ; it was as smooth as glass, and 

 we had an excellent opportunity to see the whole place, 

 for though the lagoon is sixteen miles long it has only 

 a breadth of two to two and a half anywhere and very 

 sharp points. This gave us a lot of good photographs 

 showing the two sides at once. . . . We have made quite 

 a number of soundings between the islands, which go 

 to show that those atolls are not so immensely steep but 

 rise from a great plateau. I am gradually knocking out 

 a lot of superstitions about atolls, and it is really absurd 

 that Darwin and Dana should have written such a lot of 

 nonsense, all evolved from their own brains or reading 

 of what others have said and done. . . . 



I am gradually getting the formation of these lagoons 

 into my head, and am not at all surprised that with the 

 limited experience of Dana he should have seen things 

 all twisted round as he describes them." 



After exploring the Paumotus, the Albatross again 

 touched at Papeete before visiting the other Society 

 Islands. 



Anchorage, Hurepiti Bay, Tahaa, Society Islands, 

 November 16. " You can't imagine what a beautiful 

 little bay we are at anchor in — a deep bight with high 

 hills on each side looking out through the Barrier Reef. 

 The sea has all day been as smooth as a mirror and 

 now there is not the least breath. The moon has risen 

 and the scene is perfect. . . . 



