304 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
a number rise, like long curved or circular banks 
of sand, broken coral, and shells, two or three 
feet above the water, clothed with grass, or adorned 
with cocoa-nut and palm trees. They generally 
form a curved line, sometimes bent like a horse¬ 
shoe ; the bank of soil or rock is seldom more 
than half a mile or a mile across, yet it is often 
clothed with the richest verdure. Within this en¬ 
closure is a space, sometimes of great extent. In 
the island of Hao, the Bow Island of Captain Cook, 
it is said, ships may sail many miles after entering 
the lagoon. The narrow strip of coral and sand 
enclosing the basin is sixty or seventy miles in 
length, although exceedingly narrow. Their 
lagoons are either studded with smaller reefs, or 
form a bay of great depth. The stillness of the 
surface of the bright blue water, within the 
lagoon, the border of white coral and sand by 
which it is surrounded, the dark foliage of the 
lofty trees by which it is sheltered, often reflected 
from the surface of the water, impart to the in¬ 
terior of these low islands an aspect of singular 
beauty and solitude, such as is but seldom pre¬ 
sented by the more bold and romantic scenery of 
the higher lands. These islands have received 
different names: by some they have been called 
the Labyrinth, by others the Pearl Islands, 
on account of the pearls obtained among them. 
The natives of Tahiti designate the islands and 
their inhabitants Paumotus, but by navigators 
they are usually denominated the Dangerous Ar¬ 
chipelago. 
The islands vary in extent, but are usually 
small; most of them, however, are inhabited, and 
in some the population is numerous. Their in¬ 
habitants are tall and robust, dark coloured, and 
