304 SOCIETY ISLANDS. 
some parts, from which the mountains rise more or less abruptly. At 
the head of Fare Harbour, the shore plain is nearly a mile wide, and 
the strewed shells and fragments of coral in the soil, strongly indicate 
that the tract had been recovered from the sea, and that the waves 
once washed against the very foot of the mountain.* 
Raiatea and Tahaa.—These two islands are enclosed within the 
same reef like Huahine and Huahine-iti; but each has its own 
slopes and ridges independent of the other, showing no evidence that 
they have been rent asunder. On the contrary, they may be better 
compared to the two peninsulas of Tahiti; for were this last-mentioned 
island to subside but little, we should have Ratatea and ‘Tahaa over 
again. ‘The channel between these islands is from three to five miles 
wide, and the sea is quite shallow. ‘The mountains of Raiatea are 
more lofty than those of Huahine, and equally broken and _ pictu- 
resque. ‘The whole coast is cut up with deep indentations, and in 
Tahaa they are so remarkable that the natives compare the island to 
a cuttle-fish, its spreading arms corresponding to the jutting points or 
capes. 
Borabora.—This island, at first sight from the ship, appears like a 
lofty cone, but a nearer view opens its valleys, and breaks the surface 
into peaks and ridges. Its height may be estimated at three thousand 
feet. Coral reefs skirt the shores. 
Maurua.—The mountains of this island are, as usual, highest at the 
centre, and seem to form a single peak, in the distant prospect. They 
are described as less broken into valleys than the other Society 
Islands. <A reef surrounds the island, with a single break or entrance 
on the southwest side. 
From the accounts of the islands we have here reviewed, we find 
that they correspond in general structure with Tahiti. At the centre 
is the highest summit, and from it the valleys radiate more or less 
regularly towards the shores around. ‘The same origin may be attri- 
buted to their features as to those of Tahiti. The nature of the rocks, 
as far as can be ascertained, is similar. On Borabora, Ellis found 
‘masses of rocks, apparently composed of feldspar and quartz,” and 
on Maurua, a species of granite is found in considerable abundance, 
along with the vesicular lava, and the basalt common to all the islands. 
These varieties of rock appear to resemble the syenite of Tahiti, 
* Tyerman and Bennett, i. 184, 185. 
