1839.] STREAMS AND LAKES. 195 



tableau there is sufficient depth of soil to support the cocoa, 

 bread-fruit, and banana ; and taro and yams are cultivated 

 by the inhabitants, who do not exceed five hundred in 

 number. 



Savaii, the farthest west, and the largest of the group, is 

 also connected with Apolima by a line of soundings. It is 

 not as populous or as important as Upolu, and its coast out- 

 line is much less beautiful. It is over one hundred miles in 

 circumference, and is protected, on the north and east, from 

 the violence of the surf, by reefs of coral ; but, on the oppo- 

 site sides, the breakers dash unchecked against its rocky 

 bulwarks. Except on the south and west, the shores are low, 

 and there is a gradual ascent to the centre of the island, 

 where many abrupt volcanic craters are seen, whose fires 

 were long since silenced, above which towers a siagle peak, 

 four thousand five hundred feet high, almost always envel- 

 oped in clouds, and in a clear day visible at a distance of 

 fifty or sixty miles. 



Mountain streamlets, sometimes forming quite respectable 

 rivers, frequently intersect the larger islands, with the ex- 

 ception of Savaii, which has no permanent streams, though 

 possessing an abundance of copious springs. There are like- 

 wise numerous lakes and waterfalls, — the latter of which 

 may one day be serviceable for mills or machinery. On 

 Upolu there is a pretty lake, called Laiito, occupying the 

 basin of a crater, twenty-four hundred and fifty feet above 

 the sea, with nine and a half fathoms of water in its deepest 

 part, and a subterranean outlet. 



Like the Society Islands, the members of this group are 

 generally surrounded by coral reefs, with occasional channels, 

 or openings, dividing them, through which vessels may pass, 

 and appear to be of volcanic origin. The general structure 

 of the islands is conglomerate, of a drab color, lying in hori- 

 zontal strata. The mural walls and precipices upon which, 

 as it were, the upper stratum, or productive soil, rests, are 

 of basaltic rock. There is an abundance of scoria ; currents 

 of lava are visible ; and it is also found in large blocks full of 



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