13 
the most part found lying on the bottom, and among^the coral 
forma tlonj ^.>l»h aoiiic float on the surface, when we went)) q- 
after breakfast 
with v/ater glasses, face masks. 
dip nets, and spears^ several hundred fishes were picked up in the 
next two hours, f he 110 saved for specimens had to be injected, 
labelled, wrapped in cheese cloth, and bedded down in our copper 
tanks before taking offf^r Makate^^ 
urgency to our homev/ard voyage ; the refiigerator had gone out of 
It I* 
vfhack, the cabin head refused to function, and after being out for 
/(proved^ be 
over a ¥/eek water and fuel needed replenishing. It/5^^ another of 
our boisterous passages squalls in the early morning hours, 
br » ef* 
between 3 and 5 a.m.--i but a relatively one, as we reached 
Makatea, also known as Aurora Island, at quarter to six. Because 
of our need to return to Papeete as soon as possible, w'e 
sperfSh 8 or 9 hours here, and busy ones they were. 
Makatea, the name given tiiis type of island by the Polynesians, 
has been adopted as the generic name for raised atolls, of which 
u n 
this particular ^katea is an oijtstanding example. Its towering 
ecv 
cliffs were the sea^mrd face of the reef that the original atoll 
but ■■' Which new nas been elevated to a height of 350 feet above the 
-ieve^ of the sea. The somewhat /dn^es seduce 
*v5 OL 
lagoon floor rich dsppsi^;6 of pho^spha tic- limestone. 
At the present time this 
IS 
mined^ w 
;wo 
hundred thousand metric tons and moreVexported every year 
^j^iar r ow^ Q t e e^ path one of the clefts in the islands rocky 
wall, lead^^ up/from the landing docks at Temao, -■fehe • 
nX 
