THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
Vou. x1.— FEBRUARY, 1877. — No. 2. 
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE 
FANNING GROUP OF ISLANDS. 
BY DR. THOMAS H. STREETS, U. 8. N. 
HE collection of islands which we have here designated by 
the name of Fanning’s Group consists of four coral islands 
situated in the Pacific Ocean, immediately north of the equator. 
I am not aware that they have ever been grouped on any chart, 
but, inasmuch as they form a natural group, and as three of them 
were discovered by Captain Edmund Fanning, an American 
sailor, I think we are justified in describing them under the 
above title. They stretch from latitude 1° 57’ N. to 5° 49% N., 
and from longitude 157° 27’ W. to 162° 11’ W., and, like most 
other groups in the Pacific, their general direction is northwest 
and southeast, thereby conforming to the general trend of the 
submarine range of mountains whose peaks they cap. As their 
formation is purely coral, their geological structure is compara- 
tively simple. 
The most westward, and evidently the last formed of the group, 
is Palmyra. Caldew Reef, forty miles to the northward of Pal- 
myra, has hardly, as- yet, assumed the distinctive features of an 
island. It is entirely under water at high tide, and but a few 
coral heads project here and there above the surface at low 
water. In the course of time, however, it will undoubtedly be 
added to the group. Palmyra represents the second stage in 
the formation of a coral island. The winds, waves, and currents, 
assisted probably by some other agents, have been at work on 
the surface coral, and have ground it and piled it up beyond the 
reach of the highest tides. It now consists of fifty-eight small 
islets, thickly clothed with vegetation, arranged in the form of 
an elongated horseshoe opened to the westward, and inclosing 
our lagoons. The islets are separated one from another by nar- 
Copyright, A. S. PACKARD, JR. 1877. 
