io8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



MoEEA Island Seen fbom Tahiti after a Stoem. 



work of washing away the softer rocks, leaving imposing pinnacles of 

 hard basalt such as the sheer precipice Maiao, " The Diadem," at the 

 head of Fautaua valley which lifts its nnconqiiered crest thousands of 

 feet above the soft corroding lavas of the lowlands. 



In other places the valleys are spanned by dykes of basalt forming 

 precipices over which the mountain torrents dash in a multitude of 

 graceful cataracts. 



The seductive charm of Tahiti is all its own for everywhere the 

 beautiful is wedded to the grand. The stern crags are but nestling 

 places for the mosses of the forest, and fascinated by the sylvan setting 

 of the waterfall where rainbows float on mists among the tree ferns; 

 the roar of the cataract is unperceived; and the coral reefs and shaded 

 shores of fair Tahiti, who can forget them — the glorious sparkle of sun- 

 beams playing over flickering ripples in a riot of turquoise, emerald, and 

 blue is the setting of every picture — the background of every memory. 

 Indeed, it is not where the peaks are highest that Tahiti is loveliest 

 for nowhere in the Pacific do the mountains meet the sea in fairer grace 

 of form and color than at Tautira on the eastern coast of Tahiti-iti. 

 The charmed memory of Tahiti lives only to die with the beholder. 



In the Hawaiian or the Tongan Islands, cup-shaped craters con- 

 stantly remind one of the volcanic origin of the land, but the erosion 

 due to ages of tropical showers has all but obliterated these in Tahiti al- 

 though the broad concavity in the upper region of Papenoo valley may 

 possibly mark the site of the great central crater of Tahiti-uni. 



Nestled under the southeastern rim of this crumbling crater lies the 

 gem of Tahiti, the lovely lake Vaihiria, in a setting of wild bananas, 



