Agassis — Albatross Expedition to the Eastern Pacific. 373 



Mt. Mokoto and Mt. Duff drop precipitously for more than 

 one-third their height and in less than a quarter of a mile fall 

 from over 1300 feet to the level of the sea. Similar slopes are 

 found along the volcanoes of Easter Island where there are no 

 coral reefs. The edge of the crater of Rana Kao drops per- 

 pendicularly a height of nearly 1000 feet in less than one- 

 eighth of a mile horizontal distance ; and the eastern face of 

 the crater of Rana Roroka rises vertically about 800 feet above 

 the plain of Tangariki. 



It is interesting to note how poor is the flora of the Manga 

 Reva Archipelago as compared with that of the more western 

 volcanic islands like the Marquesas and the Society Islands and 

 some of the western elevated Paumotus. In the Gambier 

 Archipelago the forests are reduced to a few patches extend- 

 ing along the small valleys of the slopes of the volcanic spurs. 

 I am informed that even in the thirties of the last century, 

 when the missionaries first landed at Manga Reva, the forest 

 trees, while more numerous, yet never attained the luxuriance 

 of growth that they attain in the Society and Marquesas 

 Islands. At the present day, with the exception of the forest 

 patches just mentioned and a few trees which have been intro- 

 duced for cultivation, the islands of the group are in great part 

 thickly covered with a species of cane closely resembling that 

 of our Southern States. The fauna of Manga Reva is also 

 extremely poor. There are no mammals, and with the excep- 

 tion of a " sandpiper" no indigenous birds. Sea birds are few 

 in number, and in our trip in the Eastern Pacific we rarely had 

 more than three or four birds accompanying us ; often only 

 one, and frequently none was visible for days. There are a 

 few lizards on the islands, apparently of the same species as 

 those in the Society Islands. 



We left Port Rikitea for Acapulco on the 4th of February 

 to anchor off Aka Mam ; on the 5th we left our anchorage, 

 sounded off the east face of Manga Reva, and took photo- 

 graphs. 



On our way north from Manga Reva to Acapulco we did 

 not begin to trawl or tow until warned by the surface nets 

 that the surface was becoming richer in animal and vegetable 

 life and also by the surface temperatures indicating that we 

 had reached the southern edge of the cold western equatorial 

 current. A little north of 10°, south latitude, we made our 

 first haul and deep tow, and found a very rich fauna down to 

 the 300 fathom line, recalling the pelagic fauna of the eastern 

 lines and fully as rich. On trawling we found, as we expected, 

 a very rich bottom fauna. 



Among the animals brought up in the trawl there were 

 some superb Hyalonemas, siliceous sponges, Benthodytes and 



