en
feet above sea level and the only fresh water is what drains
through the sand after the heavy rains."

Charles Darwin[1] has the following to say concerning Ocean Island,
which he characterizes as a true "atoll," as distinguished from
"barrier" and "fringing" reefs, which are generally formed near the
shores of higher land:

I have in vain consulted the works of Cook, Vancouver, La
Peyrouse, and Lisiansky for any satisfactory account of the
small islands and reefs which lie scattered in a northwest line
prolonged from the Sandwich group and hence have left them
uncolored, with one exception, for I am indebted to Mr. F.D.
Bennett for informing me of an atoll-formed reef in latitude 28 deg.
22', longitude 178 deg. 30' West, on which the Gledstanes was
wrecked in 1837. It is apparently of large size and extends in a
northwest and southeast line; very few inlets have been formed
on it. The lagoon seems to be shallow; at least the deepest
part which was surveyed was only three fathoms.

Mr. Couthony describes this island under the name of Ocean
Island. Considerable doubts should be entertained regarding the
nature of a reef of this kind with a very shallow lagoon, and
standing far from any other atoll, on account of the possibility
of a crater or flat bank of rock lying at the proper depth
beneath the surface of the sea, thus affording a foundation for
a ring-formed coral reef.

[Illustration: VIEW OF OCEAN ISLAND, REEF, AND LAGOON, AS SEEN
FROM THE SOUTH
(The Island is at the lower edge of the circle.)]

[Illustration: OCEAN ISLAND AS VIEWED FROM THE NORTH
(The arrow shows where the Saginaw struck.)]

The evening following the departure passed quietly in our wardroom
quarters and in fact all over the ship. Officers and men were more
than usually fatigued after the preparations for sea both on shore and
on board. There was none of the general hilarity accompanying a
homeward cruise. There was also a prevailing dread of a long and
tedious journey of over three thousand miles, mostly to be made under
sail, and we all knew the tendency of the old Saginaw in a head wind
to make "eight points to leeward," or, as a landlubber would say, to
go sideways. We occupied ourselves in stowing and securing our
movables, and after the bugle sounded "Out lights" at 9 P.M. the
steady tramp of the lookouts and their half-hour hail of