The island of Moorea (5o sq.m.), pop. (1931) 2,011, is im portant.
The island of Tahiti itself, in shape not unlike the figure 8, has a length of 33 m., a coast-line of 120 m., and an area of 402 sq.m. It is divided into two portions by a short isthmus (Taravo) about a mile in width, and nowhere more than 5o ft. above sea level. The southern, the peninsula of Taiarapu, or Tahiti-iti (Little Tahiti), measures 11 m. in length by 6 m. in breadth, while the northern, the circular main island of Porionuu, or Tahiti-uni (Great Tahiti), has a length of 22 m. and a breadth of 20. The whole island is mountainous. A little to the north west of Great Tahiti the double peak of Orohena rises to 7,321 ft. and the neighbouring Aorai is but little lower. Little Tahiti has no such elevation, but its tower-like peaks are very striking. The flat lands of the Tahitian coast, several miles wide—with its chain of villages, its fertile gardens, and its belt of palms, here and there intersected by streams from the mountains form a striking foreground to the grand mountain ranges. A good road now runs round the island, leading to Point Venus, the site in 1769 of Capt. Cook's observation of the transit of Venus.
Climate.—The seasons are not well defined. Damp is exces sive, and the heat generally great, but the climate, on the whole, is not unhealthy.
The indigenous mammalian fauna is as scanty as in the other South Sea islands ; of domestic animals, pigs of a small breed which died out on the introduction of stronger European strains —and, though this is more doubtful, dogs are said to have been plentiful when Capt. Wallis, as he supposed, "discovered" the island in 1767. Land birds are few in number and species as compared with those of the western Pacific islands. The lagoons swarm with fish of many species. Insects are poor in species though some of them are indigenous. Crustaceans and molluscs, on the other hand, are well represented ; worms, echinoderms, and corals comparatively poorly. The most interesting feature of Tahitian conchology is the number of peculiar species of the genus Partula, almost every valley having a distinct form.
The Tahitian flora though luxuriant and beautiful is not very rich, especially in the smaller plants which form the undergrowth in similar islands. Especially remarkable are many indigenous
species of banana, one form of which (peculiar in that its fruit bunches are not pendent but grow upright) is abundant in the mountains, and formerly much used by the natives as food.
Part of the archipelago was discovered by Pedro F. Quiros in 1607. In 1767 Wallis named it King George's island. In 1768 de Bougainville visited Tahiti, claimed it as French, and named it La Nouvelle Cythere. In 1769 Cook named the Leeward group the Society islands in honour of the Royal Society, at whose instigation his expedition had been sent. Tahiti and the adjacent islands he called Georgian, but the first name was subsequently adopted for the whole group.
In 1903 it was decided that separate islands or groups should no longer be regarded as distinct establishments, but that all should be united into one colony. Thus the Society islands are joined for administrative purposes with the other French posses sions in the eastern Pacific, the whole being administered by a gov ernor with an administrative council consisting of certain officials, the moire of Papeete and the presidents of the chambers of com merce and agriculture. At Papeete there are a higher primary school, and a normal school and there were (1925) 63 primary schools. The chief industries on Tahiti are the preparation of copra, sugar and rum. Imports (1925) 43,966,400 francs, exports 50,550,511 francs. The imports include wheat, and metalwork, and the exports copra, mother-of-pearl, vanilla, coco-nuts and par ticularly phosphates (85,062 tons in 1925).
The third eastern Polynesian chain may be taken to include the Manihiki islands, the Tuamotu or Low Archipelago and Pitcairn island.
The Manihiki Archipelago is situated between 4° and I I° and 150° and 162° W. Manihiki (Humphrey island) itself an islet with a land area of about two square miles, pop. (1926) 416, en circling a lagoon of about 6 miles in diameter. Its shallow soil, nowhere raised much above sea-level, supports many tall coco nut palms which serve to make the islet visible from a distance generally of about 12 m. The native population feed chiefly on coco-nuts and fish, and now have little for export except copra— though formerly pearl-shell, now practically exhausted, was dredged from the lagoon.