5A CORAL FORMATIONS. 
Area in square | Habitable part in 
Length. Greatest breadth. maa iees sauaremiles: 
Carlshoff, Paumotus, . 200 10 
Wolchonsky, “ ; 40 
Raraka, os 90 
Manhii, “ ; 50 
Nairsa or Deans,‘ ‘ 
Fakaafo, Union Group, 
Clarence, ce 
Taputeouea, Kingsmills, 
Tarawa, 6 
Namouti, 
Mari-taris 
The ten islands here enumerated have an aggregate area of 1952 
square miles, while the amount of actual dry habitable land is but 76 
miles, or less than one twenty-fourth. In the Caroline Archipelago the 
proportion of land is still smaller. Menchikoff atoll covers an area of 
500 square miles, and includes hardly 6 square miles of wooded land. 
In the Marshall Islands, the dry land is not over one-hundredth of 
the whole surface; while in the Pescadores the proportion of land 
to the whole area is about as 1 to 200. 
The distribution of the land upon the reef is obvious from the 
sketches already given. It was long since remarked that the wind- 
ward side was in general the highest. It is also apparent that there 
are not only great irregularities of form, but the reef may at times 
be wholly wanting or deeply submerged on one side. 
In many islands there is a ship-entrance, sometimes six or eight 
fathoms deep, through the reef to the lagoons, where good anchorage 
may be had; but the larger part have only shallow passages, or none at 
all. In the Paumotus, of the twenty-eight visited by the Expedition, 
not one half were found to have navigable entrances. In the Carolines, 
where the islands are large and not so much wocded, entrances are of 
more common occurrence. About half of the Kingsmill Islands afford 
a good entrance and safe anchorage. ‘Through these openings in the 
reefs there is usually a rapid outward current, especially during the 
