50 THE FLOOR OF THE OCEAN 



course of a decade or two and at relatively small cost, the 

 geology and natural history of all the islands of the open 

 Pacific could be worked out by a single group of explorers. 1 If 

 this were done, we should have in hand the essential geology 

 of all the dry land appearing in more than one quarter of the 

 whole earth. At present such a program is hardly possible: 

 first, because war and its aftermath, together with the damage 

 wrought by the current world revolution, have apparently 

 ruled out private endowment of the enterprise; and again be- 

 cause the jealous "owning" and "mandate-holding" nations, 

 seeking airplane fields and naval harbors, have raised political 

 barriers against the free, comprehensive accumulation of facts 

 about the islands. Yet, in spite of the political bosses, private 

 studies have been made during the last twenty-five years, for 

 instance: in Hawaii, Samoa, Society group, Easter Island — of 

 the Pacific; in the Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, Ascen- 

 sion Island, and Saint Helena Island — of the Atlantic; and in 

 the Maldive archipelago and Kerguelen Island of the Indian 

 Ocean. Also important has been the recent geophysical exam- 

 ination of some deep-sea islands and their immediate sur- 

 roundings. 



The Volcanic Mountains 



In the darkened stalls of the theater, millions, seeking ro- 

 mance, have discovered the volcanic island, but never a picture 

 of its dramatic evolution. No "producer" has dared to film the 

 mighty conflict that resulted in the towering mass of lava itself. 

 Each volcanic island has meant a struggle between Pluto and 

 Neptune, with Pluto the winner. In spite of the pressure of 

 two or three miles of sea water, and in spite of water-cooling 

 of the glowing, liquid lava, the infant cone, adding flow on 

 flow, fights its way up. It becomes a shoal and then a new 



