240 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE CARNEGIE 



is remarkable because it is the only coral atoll in the group. Every 

 year the Navy tug from Pago Pago calls here to replenish the sup- 

 plies of food and water kept here for emergency use by ship- 

 wrecked sailors. By dawn the following day the peak of Tau 

 was made out on the starboard bow. It was a great disappoint- 

 ment to us all that there would be no opportunity for visiting this 

 sacred island-home of the old Samoan kings. From here migrated 

 whole fleets of sea-going canoes, to populate other so-called Poly- 



Inlet near Taravao, Island of Tahiti 



The great quantities of rain falling on the mountains in the interior supply innumerable 

 waterfalls. 



nesian islands so far away as Hawaii. It was because of these 

 remarkable feats of seamanship that the Samoan Group was once 

 called "Navigators' Islands." One marvels that a small open 

 canoe ever reached its destination, in the absence of some appara- 

 tus for determining position at sea. 



By nightfall we were pushing our bow into the dense shadows 

 of Tutuila, whose harbor, Pago Pago, is known as the finest in 

 the South Pacific. Hardly had we picked up the two range-lights, 

 which a ship must keep in line to safely enter the channel, when 



