DISTRIBUTION OF REEFS. 139 
‘ The Feejee Group, as we have sufficiently described, abounds in 
reefs of great extent. There are no active volcanoes, and, where exa- 
mined, no evidence of very recent volcanic action. The many islands 
afford a most favourable region for the growth of zoophytes, and the 
displays of reefs and living corals were the finest seen by the writer 
in the Pacific. 
North of the Feejees are numerous islands, leading up to the Caro- 
lines. They are all of coral, except ng Rotuma, Horne, and Wallis 
Islands, which are high, and have fringing or barrier reefs. The reefs 
of Wallis Island are very extensive. 
The Tarawan Islands, and the Carolines including the Marshall 
Islands, eighty-seven in number, are all atolls, excepting the three 
Carolines, Ascension or Banabe, (Pouynipete of Lutke,) Ualan, and 
Hogoleu (or Roug),. 
The westernmost of the Sandwich Islands, Kauai and Oahu, have 
fringing reefs, while eastern Maui and the island of Hawaii have but 
few traces of corals. On Hawaii, the only spot of reef seen by us, 
was a submerged patch off the southern cape of Byron’s Bay. We 
have already attributed their absence to the volcanic character of the 
island. The small islands to the northwest of Kauai, are represented 
as coral reefs, excepting the rocks Necker and Bird Island; the line 
stretches on to 28° 30’ N.,* or the northern limit of the coral seas. 
The Ladrones, like the Sandwich Group, constitute a line or linear 
series of islands, one end of which has been long free from volcanic 
action, while the other has still its smoking cones. While the ap- 
pearances of recent igneous action increase therefore as we go north- 
ward, the extent of the coral reefs increase as we go southward ; none 
occur about the northernmost islands, while they are quite extensive 
on the shores of Guam. This group consequently, like the Hawaiian 
and Samoa, illustrates the influence of volcanic action on the distri- 
bution of reefs. 
A short distance southwest of the Ladrones, and nearly in the same 
line, lie extensive reefs. Mackenzie’s is an atoll of large size. Yap, 
Hunter, Los Matelotas and the Pelews are high islands, with large 
reefs. In the last mentioned, the reef-grounds cover at least six times 
the area occupied by the high land. Still farther south, towards New 
Zealand, lie the large atolls Aiou, Asie, and Los Guedes. 
* For an account of some of these islands, see Lisiansky’s Voyage, 1803-6, in the 
Neva, 4to. London, 1814, pp. 254, 257 ; also Hawaiian Spectator, vol. i. 
