EASTER ISLAND. 



275 



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EASTER ISLAND, or Rapa Nui, famous for 

 gigantic stone images, is in lat. 27 8' S., long. 

 109 24' W. ; it is about 12 miles long and 4 

 miles broad, and resembles in outline a cocked 

 hat. It is of volcanic origin ; there are no sedi- 

 mentary deposits. The island abounds in cra- 

 ters, which have been so long extinct that no 

 tradition of their activity survives. The chief 

 one of these, Te Rama Kao, is at the southwest 

 end of the island; it is about a mile in diame- 

 ter, 400 feet deep, and filled with water ; in 

 the center there is no bottom at 50 fathoms, 

 but a carpet of decayed vegetation covers the 

 surface, so firm that one can cross from side to 

 side. The island is remarkably isolated. It 

 lies about 2,000 miles from the South Ameri- 

 can coast, and 1,000 from Pitcairn Island and 

 from the Gambier Islands. The soil, which is 

 entirely composed of lava detritus, is moist and 

 very fertile. A few days' work suffices to sup- 

 port a family for an entire year. Sugar-cane 

 and the sweet-potato are indigenous, and with 

 several kinds of yams and the paper-mulberry 

 are cultivated ; the latter, as elsewhere in Poly- 

 nesia, for the purpose of manufacturing bark- 

 cloth. Large trees formerly existed on the 

 island, and in 1868 their stumps, with those of 

 the cocoa-palm nnd the hibiscus among them, 

 were seen decaying by Dr. Palmer; but noth- 

 ing larger than bushes 10 or 12 feet high re- 

 mained, though La Perouse, eighty years before 

 that time, had left fruit-trees with the inhab- 

 itants. The supply of fresh water is limited ; 

 it is found in deep pools, mainly in the volcan- 

 ic craters. There is no harbor, but the road- 

 stead affords anchorage. Near Te Rama Kao 

 is a sulphur-spring. There are now no streams, 

 though the eroded rocks in the gullies bear tes- 

 timony to the former existence of water-courses. 

 The coast-line is steep and irregular. The fau- 

 na of the island is meager ; the flora includes 

 a wild .gourd, several new varieties of ferns, 

 sedges, bog-plants, and a fine pasture-grass, on 

 which sheep and cattle thrive. 



Special interest attaches to Easter Island on 

 account of the gigantic statues, terraces, and 

 other remains of prehistoric culture that are 

 found there. They were first noticed by Men- 

 dana in 1566, and later by La Perouse, Rogge- 

 ween, and Cook, but have not been fully and 

 adequately described until very recent years, 

 particularly by Palmer (1868), and Geiseler 

 (1883). The prehistoric remains are of three 

 kinds : terraces or platforms, which were used 

 as cemeteries ; stone houses; sculptured stones, 

 or colossal human images, and pillars used as 

 cremation-stones, besides wooden idols and va- 

 rious images of later origin. The terraces are 

 built on nearly every headland, and not far 

 from the sea ; as they occupy sloping ground, 

 the sea-front is always the higher. Dr. Palmer 

 describes as follows an especially perfect ter- 



race, which he calls the Fifteen-Image Plat- 

 form : " Seaward, just where the ground be- 

 comes broken as it nears the cliffs, is built a 

 very stout wall. Its height is much obscured 

 by fallen rubbish, broken images that have top- 

 pled over, rank vegetable growth, etc. ; but it 

 seems to have been about seven or eight yards 

 high. The stones of which it is made are large 

 and irregular, both in size and shape, though 

 more or less four-sided. Some are fully six 

 feet in length. They are fitted together very 

 exactly, without any cement. This wall is 

 built flat and level at the top, about 30 feet 

 broad by 100 paces long, squared at each end, 

 and parallel to the shore in its long direction. 

 This constituted the platform on which were 

 the slabs that served as pedestals for the images. 

 Landward it seemed to be not much more than 

 a yard high. Before it was a smooth space or 

 terrace of the same length as the platform, 

 but at least four times as broad, and this ter- 

 minated in front by a low facade or step of 

 stone, about as high as that of the platform 

 seemed to be from the same point of view. 

 The terrace sloped gently to this step, and the 

 sides were built square and raised above the 

 adjoining ground, so as to join the ends of the 

 platform. The image platform was strewed 

 with bones in all directions. They were old 

 and weather-worn, but bore no marks of fire. 

 The images had been thrown down in all di- 

 rections, and were all more or less mutilated." 

 Similar images and platforms have been de- 

 scribed by the Rev. Titus Coan as existing at 

 Puamau in the Marquesas Islands, in 1860; 

 and similar platforms were seen and figured 

 by Lieut. Maiden, in 1825, on the uninhabited 

 Maiden's Island (" Voyage of H. M. S. Blonde," 

 1826). 



At the southwest side of Easter Island, at 

 the sea-edge of the Te Rama Kao crater, says 

 Dr. Palmer, are eighty or more houses of great 

 age, now unused, and mostly in good preserva- 

 tion. They are built in irregular lines as the 

 ground permits, their doors facing the sea. 

 Each house is oblong-oval, built of layers of 

 irregular flat pieces of stone, the walls about 

 5 feet high. The doors are in the side, as in 

 the present grass huts. The walls are very 

 thick, 5 feet at least, and are lined with up- 

 right slabs 4 feet high, but not so broad. 

 Above these, small thin slabs are ranged like 

 tiles, overlapping, and so gradually arching till 

 the roof-opening is bridged over by long, thin 

 slabs, 5| or 5 feet, which are not more than 6 

 inches thick and 2 feet in width. The inner 

 dimensions of the hall are about 16 paces long 

 by 5 paces wide, and the roof is 6 feet high 

 inside, under the center slabs. The passage 

 leading to it is paved with slabs, under which 

 is a kind of crypt, or blind drain, which ex- 

 tends about 6 feet outside ; here also it is cov- 



