Bennett, in a letter to the Editor of the "Singapore Chron.," alludes to the REEFS on its shores. It may, I think, be safely inferred from these passages that the shore 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 shore: the reef is about thirty yards wide, and so shallow that a boat cannot pass over it. Forster also ("Observations," page 23) says, that the rocks of the sea-shore 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 shores, 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 shore. There is a space of three miles without any reef, which, although indented with bays, offers no anchorage from the extreme depth of the water close to the shore: 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 shores; 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 shore; 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 shores 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.