Polynesian., 1844-06-22

deviating as in any other part of the world,
although the majority of the numerous har-
bors in the two latter are formed by coral
reefs. AS great regularity prevails also IN
the recurrence of the abnormal tides OF the
Society Islands, except when interrupted by
occasional heavy gales, and these for the
most part blow either across or opposite to
the direction of the trade winds.
" In a paper protesting to be an Extract
from Lieut.. Malden's Official Account of the
Sandwich Islands" published in the Append
tx of Lord Byron's voyage in Fl. M. Ship
Blonde, p. 256, Lond. Ed, 1896, are these
remarks in reference to the tides at Hawaii,
"The tide was observed to rise about four
feet, and to be high water at sunset, and low
water at daylight, being influenced by sea
and land breezcs. This regularity would
probably not take place in the winter months,
when they do not prevail"
"a "This is also Incorrect in every particular,
save the height of the tides. They do not
stately occur at the times here given, Meth
err are they affected to any extent by the prev
alence or absence of the breezes, and | am
at a loss to imagine upon what grounds Lieut..
M. predicated such Il statement as the above.
Had he lacked opportunity during his stay at
Honolulu of observing for himself, there were
certainly foreign residents enough there,
missionaries and others, who could have fur
nished him with more correct information on
this subject, had he sought to obtain it. The
truth is, that unless retarded or accelerated
by occasional storms, the flood and ebb at
these islands, from one years end to another.
summer and winter, in breeze and calm, fol-
low the course of the moon as regularly as
do the tides in Boston Harbor. The rise and
fall of the tide, varies in different harbors,
from four to five and a half feet. Having
resided for six months in the Hawaiian
Group, traversed the four principal islands in
various directions, and beside making care
full inquiry ofth residents, examined no less
than twelve harbors, including nearly all of
any consequence, some of them open road
steads, others formed by small bays, and a
large proportion by coral reefs; ! can speak
with some confidence on this point.
.34"All my visits to islands in coral archipel-
agos having been very brief, | am unable to
state what is the course of the tides among
them, but incline to believe that at the de-
tached Paumotus, they obey the usual laws.
On landing a second time at Be~llinghausen's
Island, which is about two hundred and sew
enty miles West o fTahiti, | found the reef
quite bare, at the same hour that it was over
flowed on my first visit, some months previ-
Gus. At the full and change of the moon,
the rise at Ocean Island is about twenty-five
inches, while at Christmas Island it is five
feet, but the tides on both are normal, by the
accounts of those who have been wrecked
and resided on them for several months.
"It is a remarkable fact, and one for
VUhINhs / op, NJ xn,o ~ n sho< @-,x o-1~--A:--
has been offered, that while in the Pacific
and Indian Oceans, coral abounds every
where between the tropics for a space ofabout
six thousand leagues from East to West, it
does not exist on the West coast of South
America (at least South ofthe eighth parallel
Of latitude, nor do we meet with any coral
islands within the whole space o%fnearly eight
hundred leagues to the westward of it.
Even at the Galapagos, situated directly
upon the Equator, there are no traces of a
coral reef. This absence ofcoral formations
IN portions of the same parallel in which their
most profuse display is presented, has by
some been referred to one ofthose ineXplica-
ble, apparent c~aprices of nature, beyond
mans ability to fathom, analogous to the
well-known fact, that certain classes ofplants
which flourish luxuriantly in the other hemis-
phere, will not thrive at all in situations and
climates seemingly in every respect adapted
to their growth, in our own. In the Atlantic,
1t is my impression that the same absence of
coral characterizes a large portion of the
South American coast, and the outlying in
t%ertropical islands, such as Trinidad, Martin
Vas, and Fernando Noronha; while it abounds
in the same parallels North of the line, among
the Antilles, and even in the latitude of 800
we lind a very considerable group of coral
reefs, and islands of coral limestone. At the
Cape Verde Islands, and ! think the Cana
RES also, we nave again an entire absence of