Russia and the South Pacific, 1696-1840, Volume 4: The Tuamotu Islands and Tahiti

The final volume in the quartet of books on the naval, scientific, and social activities of the Imperial Russian Navy in the South Pacific, this book focuses on the expeditions to Tahiti and the dangerous atoll chains to its east, known as the Tuamotus. Under the command of Captains Otto von Kotzebue and F.Fellingshausen, expedition members were the first to chart several of the Tuamotu islands. They also theorized correctly about coral reef and atoll formation, botanized, and collected ethnographica in a systematic way.