NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE 



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came in canoes from the northwest; the navigator, Davis, sighted 

 hind to the east in 1686, now disappeared; Juan Fernandez re- 

 ported land to the south, with great rivers flowing down to the 

 sea; the ancient name of the island is said to mean "navel," as 

 though Easter Island were the center of the group of islands; and 

 there have been recent probable submergences of land in the 

 Pacific. This theory shows what a wild assumption must be 

 used to explain the presence of so many people of the island in 



1 



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Colossal Statues, Easter Island 



Why or even who made them no one knows — were they meant to be busts of notable 

 personages? (Courtesy of the Library of Congress.) 



ancient times — the submergence of a whole archipelago. Our 

 soundings in approaching and leaving the island gave no hint 

 of such a submergence, although a ridge as high as the Andes was 

 discovered in the sea near the coast of Chile. 



The fig-tree umbrellas beneath which we had halted on the way 

 out had furnished more fruit than cover, but we were still raven- 

 ously hungry, and wet. The only shelter we could find on Image 

 Mountain was in an artificial cave left by the sculptors when the 

 lava was cut away around one of the gigantic images. We spread 



