200 APPENDIX. 



up, — 'a nearly continuous fringing- reef surrounding the island, 

 and varying from a few yards to rather more than a mile in 

 width, the lagoons merely forming canals between this and 

 the sea-reef,' that is the barrier-reef. Tapamanoa is sur- 

 rounded by a reef at a considerable distance from the shore ; 

 from the island being small, it is breached, as I am informed 

 by the Rev. W. Ellis, only by a narrow and crooked boat- 

 channel. This is the lowest island in the group, its height 

 probably not exceeding 500 feet. A little way north of Tahiti, 

 the low coral islets of Teturoa are situated ; from the descrip- 

 tion of them given me by the Eev. J. Williams (the author of 

 the Narrative of Missionary Enterprise), I should have thought 

 that they formed a small atoll, and likewise from the descrip- 

 tion given by the Rev. D. Tyerman and G. Bennett (Journ. of 

 Voy. and Travels, vol. i. p. 183), who say that ten low coral 

 islets 'are comprehended within one general reef, and sepa- 

 rated from each other by interjacent lagoons;' but as Mr. 

 Stutchbury (West of England Journal, vol. i. p. 54) describes 

 it as consisting of a mere narrow ridge, I have left it un- 

 coloured. Maitea, eastward of the group, is classed by Forster 

 as a high encircled island ; but from the account given by 

 the Rev. D. Tyerman and G. Bennett (vol. i. p. 57) it 

 appears to be an exceedingly abrupt cone rising from the sea 

 without any reef ; left uncoloured. It would be superfluous 

 to describe the northern islands in this group, as they may be 

 well seen in the chart accompanying the 4to. edition of Cook's 

 Voyages, and in the atlas of the Coquille's Voyage. Mavrua 

 is the only one of the northern islands in which the water 

 within the reef is not deep, being only 4^ fathoms ; but the 

 great width of the reef, stretching three miles and a half south- 

 ward of the land (which is represented in the drawing in the 

 atlas of the Coquille's Voyage as descending abruptly to the 

 water), shows, on the principle explained in the beginning of 

 the last chapter, that it belongs to the barrier class. I may 

 here mention, from information communicated to me by the 



