Or ae PB lV 
SOCIETY ISLANDS. 
TueE Society Group consists of ten islands, ranging in a line 250 
miles long, trending N. 62° W. Commencing from the northwest 
they are as follows:—Tubuai, Maurtia, Borabéra, Tahaa, Raiatea, 
Huahine, Tapuaemanu, EKimeo, Tetuaroa, Tahiti. To this number 
Osnaburgh or Metia may properly be added, as it lies in the same 
range, about one hundred miles to the westward of Tahiti. With the 
exception of ‘T'ubuai and Tetuaroa, they are all basaltic or high islands. 
The area of the whole together does not exceed twenty-five miles 
square, or 600 square miles, and of this about one half, or three 
hundred square miles, belong to the single island of 'Tahiti.* 
These basaltic islands are characterized by high mountains, deep 
precipitous gorges, and that rich livery of green with which the mild 
airs of a perpetual summer clothe the tropical islands of the Pacific. 
Coral reefs in some instances border their shores, forming a circle 
around dotted with verdant islets. 
The broken character of the surface is most striking on Kimeo, yet 
all the islands afford scenes of grandeur unsurpassed in the Pacific. 
In the distant view, Eimeo seems to be a mass of mountain towers, 
- a a8 y ee wr » Ss W/ INS oe . 
ISLAND OF EIMEO, FROM THE EASTWARD. 
crags, and peaks, rising abruptly to great elevations,} and in one lofty 
summit, resembling a rudely-shaped cone, there is a hole opening 
through, a few hundred feet from the top. 
* The coral islands, Lord Howe’s and Scilly to the westward, are sometimes united to 
the Society Group. They, however, belong to a separate range. 
+ See also a sketch by Mr. Agate, in the Narrative of the Expedition, ii, 56. 
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