402 PACIFIC OCEAN. 
2. ELEVATIONS OF MODERN ERAS IN THE PACIFIC. 
Since the period of subsidence, the history of which has occupied us 
in the preceding pages, there has been no equally general elevation. 
Yet various parts of the ocean bear evidence of changes confined to 
particular islands or groups of islands. While the former exemplify 
one of the grander events in the earth’s history, in which a large 
segment of the globe was concerned, the latter exhibit its minor dis- 
turbances over limited areas. ‘The instances of. these changes are so 
numerous and so widely scattered, that they convince us of a cessa- 
tion in the previous general subsidence. 
The most convenient mode of reviewing the subject is to state in 
order, the facts relating to each group, and we here commence with 
the Paumotus. 
Paumotu ArcHIpELAGo.—The islands of this archipelago appear in 
general to have that height which the ocean may give to the materials. 
Nothing was detected which satisfied us of any general elevation in 
progress through the archipelago. The large extent of wooded land 
shows only that the islands have been long at their present level: and 
on this point our own observations confirm those of Mr. Darwin. 
There are examples of elevation in particular islands, however, some 
of which are of unusual interest. The instances examined by the 
Expedition, were Honden (or Henuake), Dean’s Island (or Nairsa), 
Aurora (or Metia), and Clermont Tonnerre. Beside these, Elizabeth 
Island has been described by Beechey, and the same author mentions 
certain facts relating to Ducie’s Island and Osnaburgh, which afford 
some suspicions of a rise. 
Honden or Dog Island.—T his island 1s wooded on its different sides, 
and has a shallow lagoon. ‘The beach is eight feet high and the 
land about eleven. ‘There are three entrances to the lagoon, all of 
which were dry at low water, and one only was filled at high water. 
Around the lagoon, near the level of high tide, there were numerous 
shells of 'Tridacna lying in cavities in the coral rock, precisely as they 
occur alive on the shore reef. As these Tridacnas evidently lived 
where the shells remain, and do not occur alive more than six or eight 
inches, or a foot at the most, above low tide, they prove, in connexion 
with the other facts, an elevation of twenty inches or two feet. 
Nairsa or Dean's Island.—The south side of Dean’s Island, the 
