APPENDIX. 205 



in Kotzebue's Seco?id Voyage. The group consists (with the 

 exception of two little islands which probably have had 

 their lagoon filled up) of a double row of 23 large and 

 well-characterised atolls, from the examination of which 

 Chamisso has given us his well-known account of coral- 

 formations. I include Gaspar-Pico, or Cornwallis Isld. in 

 this group, which is described by Chamisso (Kotzebue's 

 First Voyage, vol. iii. p. 179) "as a low sickle-formed group, 

 with mould only on the windward side." Gaspard Island 

 is considered by some geographers as a distinct island lying 

 N.E. of the group, but it is not entered in the chart by 

 Krusenstern; left uncoloured. In the S.W. part of this 

 group lies Baring Island, of which little is known (see 

 Krusenstern's Appendix, 1835, P- J 49)- * have left it un- 

 coloured; but Boston Isld. I have coloured blue, as it is 

 described {ibid.) as consisting of 14 small islands, which, no 

 doubt, enclose a lagoon, as represented in a chart in the 

 Coqiiille^s Atlas. — Two islands, Aur Kawen and Gaspar 

 Rico, are written in the French chart with capital letters ; 

 but this is an error, for from the account given by Chamisso 

 in Kotzebue's First Voyage, they are certainly low. The 

 nature, position, and even existence, of the shoals and small 

 islands north of the Marshall group, are doubtful. 



New Hebrides. — Any chart, on even a small scale, of 

 these islands, will show that their shores are almost without 

 reefs, presenting a remarkable contrast with those of New 

 Caledonia on the one hand, and the Fidji group on the 

 other. Nevertheless, I have been assured by Mr. G. 

 Bennett, that coral grows vigorously on their shores; as 

 indeed, will be further shown in some of the following 

 notices. As, therefore, these islands are not encircled, and 

 as coral grows vigorously on their shores, we might almost 

 conclude, without further evidence, that they were fringed, 



