Part 8 (2/2)
The chart of this group, given in the ”Atlas of the 'Coquille's' Voyage,”
at once shows that it is composed of ten well characterised atolls. In D'Urville and Lottin's chart, SYDENHAM is written with a capital letter, signifying that it is high; but this certainly is not the case, for it is a perfectly characterised atoll, and a sketch, showing how low it is, is given in the ”'Coquille's' Atlas.” Some narrow strip-like reefs project from the southern side of DRUMMOND atoll, and render it irregular. The southern island of the group is called CHASE (in some charts, ROTCHES); of this I can find no account, but Mr. F.D. Bennett discovered (”Geographical Journal”, volume vii., page 229), a low extensive island in nearly the same lat.i.tude, about three degrees westward of the longitude a.s.signed to Rotches, but very probably it is the same island. Mr. Bennett informs me that the man at the masthead reported an appearance of lagoon-water in the centre; and, therefore, considering its position, I have coloured it blue.
--PITT Island, at the extreme northern point of the group, is left uncoloured, as its exact position and nature is not known.--BYRON Island, which lies a little to the eastward, does not appear to have been visited since Commodore Byron's voyage, and it was then seen only from a distance of eighteen miles; it is said to be low; uncoloured.
OCEAN, PLEASANT, and ATLANTIC Islands all lie considerably to the west of the Gilbert group: I have been unable to find any distinct account of them. Ocean Island is written with small letters in the French chart, but in Krusenstern's ”Memoir” it is said to be high.
MARSHALL GROUP.
We are well acquainted with this group from the excellent charts of the separate islands, made during the two voyages of Kotzebue: a reduced one of the whole group may be easily seen in Krusenstern's ”Atlas,” and in Kotzebue's ”Second Voyage.” The group consists (with the exception of two LITTLE islands which probably have had their lagoon filled up) of a double row of twenty-three large and well-characterised atolls, from the examination of which Chamisso has given us his well-known account of coral-formations. I include GASPAR RICO, or CORNWALLIS Island in this group, which is described by Chamisso (Kotzebue's ”First Voyage,” volume iii., page 179) ”as a low sickle-formed group, with mould only on the windward side.” Gaspard Island is considered by some geographers as a distinct island lying N.E. of the group, but it is not entered in the chart by Krusenstern; left uncoloured. In the S.W. part of this group lies BARING Island, of which little is known (see Krusenstern's ”Appendix,” 1835, page 149). I have left it uncoloured; but BOSTON Island I have coloured blue, as it is described (Ibid.) as consisting of fourteen small islands, which, no doubt, enclose a lagoon, as represented in a chart in the ”'Coquille's'
Atlas.”--Two islands, AUR KAWEN and GASPAR RICO, are written in the French chart with capital letters; but this is an error, for from the account given by Chamisso in Kotzebue's ”First Voyage,” they are certainly low.
The nature, position, and even existence, of the shoals and small islands north of the Marshall group, are doubtful.
NEW HEBRIDES.
Any chart, on even a small scale, of these islands, will show that their sh.o.r.es are almost without reefs, presenting a remarkable contrast with those of New Caledonia on the one hand, and the Fidji group on the other.
Nevertheless, I have been a.s.sured by Mr. G. Bennett, that coral grows vigorously on their sh.o.r.es; as indeed, will be further shown in some of the following notices. As, therefore, these islands are not encircled, and as coral grows vigorously on their sh.o.r.es, we might almost conclude, without further evidence, that they were fringed, and hence I have applied the red colour with rather greater freedom than in other instances.--MATTHEW'S ROCK, an active volcano, some way south of the group (of which a plan is given in the ”Atlas of the 'Astrolabe's' Voyage”) does not appear to have reefs of any kind about it.--ANNATOM, the southernmost of the Hebrides; from a rough woodcut given in the ”United Service Journal” (1831, part iii., page 190), accompanying a paper by Mr. Bennett, it appears that the sh.o.r.e is fringed; coloured red.--TANNA. Forster, in his ”Observations”
(page 22), says Tanna has on its sh.o.r.es coral-rock and madrepores; and the younger Forster, in his account (volume ii., page 269) speaking of the harbour says, the whole S.E. side consists of coral-reefs, which are overflowed at high-water; part of the southern sh.o.r.e in Cook's chart is represented as fringed; coloured red.--IMMER is described (”United Service Journal,” 1831, part iii., page 192) by Mr. Bennett as being of moderate elevation, with cliffs appearing like sandstone: coral grows in patches on its sh.o.r.e, but I have not coloured it; and I mention these facts, because Immer might have been thought from Forster's cla.s.sification (”Observations,” page 14), to have been a low island or even an atoll.-- ERROMANGO Island; Cook (”Second Voyage,” volume ii., page 45, 4to edition) speaks of rocks everywhere LINING the coast, and the natives offered to haul his boat over the breakers to the sandy beach: Mr. Bennett, in a letter to the Editor of the ”Singapore Chron.,” alludes to the REEFS on its sh.o.r.es. It may, I think, be safely inferred from these pa.s.sages that the sh.o.r.e is fringed in parts by coral-reefs; coloured red.--SANDWICH Island.
The east coast is said (Cook's ”Second Voyage,” volume ii., page 41) to be low, and to be guarded by a chain of breakers. In the accompanying chart it is seen to be fringed by a reef; coloured red.--MALLICOLLO. Forster speaks of the reef-bounded sh.o.r.e: the reef is about thirty yards wide, and so shallow that a boat cannot pa.s.s over it. Forster also (”Observations,”
page 23) says, that the rocks of the sea-sh.o.r.e consist of madrepore. In the plan of Sandwich harbour, the headlands are represented as fringed; coloured red.--AURORA and PENTECOST Islands, according to Bougainville, apparently have no reefs; nor has the large island of S. ESPIRITU, nor BLIGH Island or BANKS' Islands, which latter lie to the N.E. of the Hebrides. But in none of these cases, have I met with any detailed account of their sh.o.r.es, or seen plans on a large scale; and it will be evident, that a fringing-reef of only thirty or even a few hundred yards in width, is of so little importance to navigation, that it will seldom be noticed, excepting by chance; and hence I do not doubt that several of these islands, now left uncoloured, ought to be red.
SANTA CRUZ GROUP.
VANIKORO (Figure 1, Plate I.) offers a striking example of a barrier-reef: it was first described by the Chevalier Dillon, in his voyage, and was surveyed in the ”Astrolabe”; coloured pale blue.--TIKOPIA and FATAKA Islands appear, from the descriptions of Dillon and D'Urville, to have no reefs; ANOUDA is a low, flat island, surrounded by cliffs (”'Astrolabe'
Hydrog.” and Krusenstern, ”Mem.” volume ii., page 432); these are uncoloured. TOUPOUA (OTOOBOA of Dillon) is stated by Captain Tromelin (”Annales Marit.” 1829, page 289) to be almost entirely included in a reef, lying at the distance of two miles from the sh.o.r.e. There is a s.p.a.ce of three miles without any reef, which, although indented with bays, offers no anchorage from the extreme depth of the water close to the sh.o.r.e: Captain Dillon also speaks of the reefs fronting this island; coloured blue.-- SANTA-CRUZ. I have carefully examined the works of Carteret, D'Entrecasteaux, Wilson, and Tromelin, and I cannot discover any mention of reefs on its sh.o.r.es; left uncoloured.--TINAKORO is a constantly active volcano without reefs.--MENDANA ISLES (mentioned by Dillon under the name of MAMMEE, etc.); said by Krusenstern to be low, and intertwined with reefs. I do not believe they include a lagoon; I have left them uncoloured.--DUFF'S Islands compose a small group directed in a N.W. and S.E. band; they are described by Wilson (page 296, ”Miss. Voy.” 4to edition), as formed by bold-peaked land, with the islands surrounded by coral-reefs, extending about half a mile from the sh.o.r.e; at a distance of a mile from the reefs he found only seven fathoms. As I have no reason for supposing there is deep water within these reefs, I have coloured them red.
KENNEDY Island, N.E. of Duff's. I have been unable to find any account of it.
NEW CALEDONIA.
The great barrier-reefs on the sh.o.r.es of this island have already been described (Figure 5, Plate II.). They have been visited by Labillardiere, Cook, and the northern point by D'Urville; this latter part so closely resembles an atoll that I have coloured it dark blue. The LOYALTY group is situated eastward of this island; from the chart and description given in the ”Voyage of the 'Astrolabe',” they do not appear to have any reefs; north of this group, there are some extensive low reefs (called ASTROLABE and BEAUPRE,) which do not seem to be atoll-formed; these are left uncoloured.
AUSTRALIAN BARRIER-REEF.
The limits of this great reef, which has already been described, have been coloured from the charts of Flinders and King. In the northern parts, an atoll-formed reef, lying outside the barrier, has been described by Bligh, and is coloured dark blue. In the s.p.a.ce between Australia and New Caledonia, called by Flinders the Corallian Sea, there are numerous reefs.
Of these, some are represented in Krusenstern's ”Atlas” as having an atoll-like structure; namely, BAMPTON shoal, FREDERIC, VINE or Horse-shoe, and ALERT reefs; these have been coloured dark blue.
LOUISIADE.
The dangerous reefs which front and surround the western, southern, and northern coasts of this so-called peninsula and archipelago, seem evidently to belong to the barrier cla.s.s. The land is lofty, with a low fringe on the coast; the reefs are distant, and the sea outside them profoundly deep.
Nearly all that is known of this group is derived from the labours of D'Entrecasteaux and Bougainville: the latter has represented one continuous reef ninety miles long, parallel to the sh.o.r.e, and in places as much as ten miles from it; coloured pale blue. A little distance northward we have the LAUGHLAN Islands, the reefs round which are engraved in the ”Atlas of the Voyage of the 'Astrolabe',” in the same manner as in the encircled islands of the Caroline Archipelago, the reef is, in parts, a mile and a half from the sh.o.r.e, to which it does not appear to be attached; coloured blue. At some little distance from the extremity of the Louisiade lies the WELLS reef, described in G. Hamilton's ”Voyage in H.M.S.
'Pandora'” (page 100): it is said, ”We found we had got embayed in a double reef, which will soon be an island.” As this statement is only intelligible on the supposition of the reef being crescent or horse-shoe formed, like so many other submerged annular reefs, I have ventured to colour it blue.
SOLOMON ARCHIPELAGO.
The chart in Krusenstern's ”Atlas” shows that these islands are not encircled, and as coral appears from the works of Surville, Bougainville, and Labillardiere, to grow on their sh.o.r.es, this circ.u.mstance, as in the case of the New Hebrides, is a presumption that they are fringed. I cannot find out anything from D'Entrecasteaux's ”Voyage,” regarding the southern islands of the group, so have left them uncoloured.--MALAYTA Island in a rough MS. chart in the Admiralty has its northern sh.o.r.e fringed.--YSABEL Island, the N.E. part of this island, in the same chart, is also fringed: Mendana, speaking (Burney, volume i., page 280) of an islet adjoining the northern coast, says it is surrounded by reefs; the sh.o.r.es, also of Port Praslin appear regularly fringed.--CHOISEUL Island. In Bougainville's ”Chart of Choiseul Bay,” parts of the sh.o.r.es are fringed by coral-reefs.-- BOUGAINVILLE Island. According to D'Entrecasteaux the western sh.o.r.e abounds with coral-reefs, and the smaller islands are said to be attached to the larger ones by reefs; all the before-mentioned islands have been coloured red.--BOUKA Islands. Captain Duperrey has kindly informed me in a letter that he pa.s.sed close round the northern side of this island (of which a plan is given in his ”Atlas of the 'Coquille's' Voyage”), and that it was ”garnie d'une bande de recifs a fleur d'eau adherentes au rivage;”
and he infers, from the abundance of coral on the islands north and south of Bouka, that the reef probably is of coral; coloured red.
Off the north coast of the Solomon Archipelago there are several small groups which are little known; they appear to be low, and of coral-formation; and some of them probably have an atoll-like structure; the Chevallier Dillon, however, informs me that this is not the case with the B. de CANDELARIA.--OUTONG JAVA, according to the Spanish navigator, Maurelle, is thus characterised; but this is the only one which I have ventured to colour blue.
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