A HISTORY OF TAHITI 107 



waves of foam in splendid majesty upon the coral reefs, or dashing in spray 

 against its broken shore. 



And in speaking of the Tahitian valleys, Ellis says: 



There is the wildness of romance about the deep and lonely glens, around 

 which the mountains rise like the steep sides of a natural amphitheater, till the 

 clouds seem supported by them — this arrests the attention of the beholder, and 

 for a time suspends his faculties in mute astonishment, and in the unbroken still- 

 ness that pervades the whole we might easily have induced the delusion that we 

 were upon the enchanted ground of nature 's fairy land. 



Even simple sailor-like Wallis says of Tahiti : 



The country has the most delightful and romantic appearance that can be 

 imagined : towards the sea it is level, and is covered wdth fruit trees of various 

 kinds, particularly the eocoanut. Among these are the houses of the inhabitants, 

 consisting only of a roof, and at a distance having greatly the appearance of a 

 long barn. The country within, at about the distance of three miles, rises into 

 lofty hills, that are crowned with wood, apd terminate in peaks from which 

 large rivers are precipitated into the sea. We saw no shoals but found the is- 

 land skirted by a reef of (coral) rocks through which there are several open- 

 ings into deep water. 



Tahiti is situated in South Latitude 17° 40' and West Longitude 

 149° 25'. In other words, upon the opposite side of the world from 

 the middle of Africa, and nearly at the center of the Pacific Ocean. 

 In outline, it is figure-8 shaped, being a twin island, consisting of two 

 oval land masses joined by the low, narrow isthmus of Taravao. The 

 major axis of the island extends from northwest to southeast, and is only 

 about 37 miles long. The larger land mass, called Great Tahiti, or 

 Tahiti-uni, has about four times the area of Little Tahiti (Tahiti-iti) 

 which lies to the southeastward. The total length of the coast line is 

 not more than 120 miles, and the area of the whole island is only about 

 one third that of the State of Ehode Island. 



The peculiar figure-8 shape of the island is probably due to the activ- 

 ity of two originally separate volcanic cones each one of which rose 

 above the sea until their sides touched. But, if this be true, it occurred 

 long ago measured in terms of the life-time of volcanoes for there 

 are now neither hot springs nor other evidences of internal heat upon 

 the island. 



Indeed much of nature's sculpturing of valley-wall and peak is due 

 to the great variety of plutonic and volcanic rocks and nepheline syenite 

 upon Tahiti, the differing degrees of hardness of which permitted ero- 

 sion to carve deeply in some places, while at the same time leaving 

 others to stand in bold relief. 



Also the grandeur of Tahitian scenery is due to the fact that its 

 volcanoes were of an explosive type and tore deep fissures into the earth's 

 crust, permitting molten basalt to well upward and cement the rents. 

 Then, when the volcanic fires died down, the rains consummated their 



