TRUE VOLCANOES. 389 



cially by a comprehensive examination of the different opi- 

 nions on the forms, the distribution and the axial direction 

 of the island groups, on the character of the different kinds of 

 rocks, and the periods of the subsidence and upheaval of ex- 

 tensive tracts of the floor of the ocean, has the indisputable 

 merit of having shed a new light over the island-world of 

 the South Sea. In availing myself of his work, as well as 

 of the admirable writings of Charles Darwin, the geologist of 

 Captain Fitzroy's expedition (1832 1836), without always 

 particularizing them, I trust that the high respect in which 

 I have for so many years held those gentlemen, will secure 

 me from the chance of having my motives misinterpreted. 



It is my intention to avoid altogether the divisional terms 

 of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, and Malaisia, 83 which 

 are not only extremely arbitrary, but founded on totally 

 different principles drawn from the number and size, or the 

 complexion and descent of the inhabitants, and to com- 

 mence the enumeration of the still active volcanoes of the 

 South Sea with those which lie to the north of the equator. 

 I shall afterwards proceed in the direction from east to 

 west to the islands situated between the equator and the 

 parallel of 30 south latitude. The numerous basaltic and 

 trachytic islands, with their countless craters, formerly at 

 different times eruptive, must on no account be said to be 

 indiscriminately scattered. 84 It is admitted with respect to 

 the greater number of them that their upheaval has taken 



s 3 D'Urville, Voy. de la Corvette I' Astrolabe, 18261829, Atlas, pi. i. 

 1st, Polynesia is considered to contain the eastern portion of the 

 South Sea (the Sandwich Islands, Tahiti, and the Tonga Archipelago ; 

 and also New Zealand) ; 2nd, Micronesia and Melanesia form the west- 

 ern portion of the South Sea ; the former extends from Kauai, the 

 westernmost island of the Sandwich group, to near Japan and the 

 Philippines, and reaches south to the equator, comprehending the 

 Marians (Ladrones), the Carolinas and the Pellew Islands ; 3rd, Me- 

 lanesia, so called from its dark-haired inhabitants, bordering on the 

 Malaisia to the north-west, embraces the small archipelago of Viti, or 

 Feejee, the New Hebrides and Solomon's Islands; likewise the larger 

 islands of New Caledonia, New Britain, New Ireland, and New 

 Guinea. The terms Oceania and Polynesia, often so contradictory iu 

 a geographical point of view, are taken from Malte-Brun (1813) and 

 from Le*soii (1 828). 



84 " The epithet scattered, as applied to the islands of the ocean (in 

 the arrangement of the groups) conveys a very incorrect idea of thei* 



