886 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
Molokin?.—This island has an area of but a few square acres and is 
uninhabited. It is situated about midway between Maui and Kahoo- 
lawe. Fish are said to congregate around the island in large numbers 
and it is visited frequently by the fishermen from Maui. 
Nithau.—This, the most westerly inhabited island of the group, is 
15 miles from Kauai. It has an area of 97 square miles. Two-thirds 
of it is a low plain composed of an uplifted coral reef and matter 
washed down from the mountains. The hilly portion is destitute of 
peaks and ridges. On the side toward Kauai the coast is formed of 
high cliffs, and from the similarity of the structure of the rocks on the 
two sides of the strait it is thought that the islands were once united. 
It is used exclusively for a sheep ranch. Shells of great beauty are 
found on the shores, which is unusual on the other islands, as there 
are but few violent storms to throw them up on the beach. | 
Oahu.—TVhis island is the third in size, but the first in population 
and importance. It is 46 miles long by 25 miles broad, but has an 
irregular quadrangular form, with an area of 600 square miles. It 
is traversed from southeast and northwest by two parallel ranges of 
hills separated by a low plain. The highest point on the island is 
Kaala, 4,030 feet. The greater part of the coast is surrounded by a 
coral reef, often half a mile wide. In several localities an old reef 
has been upheaved, sometimes to the height of 100 feet, and now 
forms part of the land. Honolulu, the capital of the islands, is built 
upon such a reef. The harbor of Honolulu is the only improved 
one of the coast. It has a depth of 30 feet to the wharves. It had 
originally a shallow bar at the entrance to the harbor, but a passage 
through this was dredged some years ago. Pearl Harbor, 12 miles to 
the west of Honolulu, was ceded to the United States in 1876 upon the 
execution of the reciprocity treaty with the islands, and is capable of 
being made one of the best and safest harbors in the world. It has a 
narrow entrance, and a short distance inside of the entrance the har- 
bor is divided by a narrow strip of the mainland running down the 
center, into two arms, or branches, which extend back into the island 
a distance of 10 miles. The depth of water in the harbor is from 6 to 
18 fathoms. Just outside the entrance to the harbor is a shallow bar 
which must be dredged before large vessels can enter. 
HISTORY OF THE ISLANDS. 
Aceording to Prof. W. D. Alexander, the Hawaiian historian, 
‘‘there is little doubt that these islands were discovered by the Span- 
ish navigator Juan Gaetano in the year 1555.” The Spanish guarded 
the secret well, as the first intimation the world at large had of their 
existence was in 1742, when Commodore Anson, of England, captured 
a Spanish ship and found on board her a map on which was marked a 
eroup of islands in their present vicinity. The visits made to the 
islands in 1778 and 1779 by the English navigator Captain Cook first 
