PENRHYN ISLAND. 271 



down on previous charts, and that it was not to be found. In speaking 

 of Bow Island, he likewise mentions the fact that several of its points 

 had undergone material change, or were no longer the same,* when 

 visited after a lapse of fourteen years. These remarks refer particu- 

 larly to islets situated within the lagoon. I could myself quote many 

 instances of the same description ; but this would occupy too much 

 space. 



I shall, therefore, take leave of the coral islands, trusting that these 

 few remarks may excite a spirit of investigation in others. 



Among other duties assigned Lieutenant Johnson were tidal obser- 

 vations, which were continued uninterruptedly, from the 19th of De- 

 cember, 1840, till his departure from the island; but unfortunately, 

 the tide-staff was placed in the lagoon, a place not free from objections, 

 because the tide there has but a small rise and fall, and is much in- 

 fluenced by the wind, that blows the water over the reef, giving less 

 tide and a longer outflowing there ; but the flood was distinctly seen, 

 by Lieutenant Johnson, during a fishing excursion at the entrance of 

 the lagoon, to flow in rapidly ; and the high tide was correct, for the 

 water on the reef was two feet or more in depth. The record of 

 these observations gives the high water at the full and change of the 

 moon at six o'clock: the rise and fall in the lagoon eight inches, and 

 two tides in twenty-four hours. During our visit to this island I had 

 observed a fall of upwards of two feet, and have to regret that the 

 tide-staff was placed in so unfortunate a position. 



Lieutenant Johnson reports the inhabitants as being twenty in num- 

 ber, seven men, eight women, and five children. In this small com- 

 munity they seem to experience the ills of life as well as elsewhere; 

 for of the men, one was aged, another helpless, and a third a cripple, 

 and one of the women was stone-blind. 



On the day the Porpoise made Aratica, they discovered a large 

 double canoe, with two mat-sails, which proved to be from Anaa, and 

 bound to Aratica ; there were sixteen persons on board, men, women, 

 and children, together with their mats, calabashes, and large supplies 

 of cocoa-nuts, &c, with which they declined parting. They had left 

 Anaa, a distance of one hundred and thirty miles to the southward, the 

 morning before. The canoe was a dull sailer, the brig leaving her 

 far behind ; she, however, reached the entrance to the lagoon during 

 the day, and was warped through the passage into it. 



The next day the Porpoise sailed for Tahiti, where she arrived on 



* See Captain Belcher's remarks on Bow Island — Voyage around the World in 1836 

 and 1842. 



