GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF HAWAII. 91 



tains were visil)le; all else was covered by the mitrhty delnj^e. As time went 

 on, the water receded to the present level, and Ihus it was that the sea was 

 l)rought to Ilawaii-nei.i 



From her coming nnlil now. Pele has continued 1o dwell in Ihe ITawaiian 

 Islands. According to the legend, her home was first on Kauai — one oi 

 the northern islands of the group. From there she moved to JNlolokai and settled 

 in the crater Kauhako. Later she removed to ^Nlaui and established herself in 

 the crater hill of Pnulaina, near Lahaina. After a time she moved again to 

 Ilaleakala, where she hollowed out that mighty crater. Finally, as a last resort, 

 she settled in the great crater of Kilauea, on Hawaii, where she has even since 

 made her abode. 



In this way Pele came to be the presiding goddess of Kilauea and to rule 

 over its fiery flood, and from those ancient days to the present, she has been 

 respected as the ranking goddess of all volcanoes, with power at her command 

 to lift islands from the sea, to rend towering mountain peaks, to make the very 

 earth tremble at her command, to obscure the sun with stifling smoke, to cause 

 rivers of molten rock to flow down the mountains like water, and above all to 

 keep the fires forever burning in her subterranean abode. 



This interesting legend should be regarded as a sincere effort of the Ha- 

 waiian mind to account for the presence in the islands of the primeval power 

 they saw in the volcano and to explain certain fundamental phenomena of 

 nature which surrounded them on every hand. Here were the islands, here 

 were the burning mountains, here was the great sea, here were the people, the 

 animals and the plants. Whence came they all, and how did the}' come to be? 



Legend and Science Agree. 



With all our boasted science, v/e are still groping, as were the ancient Tla- 

 waiians, seeking an explanation of the beginning of the islands, and of the iii;ir- 

 velous variety of life which they support. Li the search, science has sub- 

 .stiiuted theory for legend, and observation for myth, but when we compare the 

 legendary course of Pele as she moved her home, from the oldest island, Kauai, 

 to the young island, Hawaii, with the theory that geologists have workej out 

 to account for certain basic facts in the evolution of the grouj). w(^ are sur- 

 l)rised to find that legend so closely accords with the modern accei)ted theory 

 of tile succession in time ot the extinction of the volcauie fires that marked 

 the completion of one island after anothei-, until Hawaii alone can boast of the 

 possession of the eternal fires. 



1 All Hawaii. 



Description of Plate. 



1. ]\li(l\v:iy Island; looking from sand islet towards groon islet, showing tlie characteristic 

 vegetation. '2. Showing the cable station on Midway Island. Note the growth of sand grass 

 (Ci/)toJon (Incti/lon) in the foreground. ."?. View on Ocean Island showing the formation of 

 sand hills under the protection of the low bushes (Scwvula Kocnigii). 4. Hut built on green 

 islet by Japanese bird poachers. 5. Midway Island home of Capt. Walker and family, who 

 were shipwrecked on the island in T^S7 and spirit fourteiMi months there before being rescued. 

 (The hut has since been burned). 



