CORAL REEFS, AND ISLANDS. 271 



Mount Koa, of Hawaii, present a remarkable 

 instance of approximation, as they differ but 200 

 feet ; but the two sides of the crater of Mount Loa 

 differ 314 feet in height. Mount Koa, though of 

 volcanic character, has no large crater at top, 

 Hualalai, the third mountain of Hawaii, is 4,000 feet 

 lower than Mount Loa. The volcanic summit of 

 East Maui is 10,000 feet high, and contains a large 

 crater, but the wall of the crater, on one side, is 700 

 feet lower than the highest point of the mountain, 

 and the bottom of the crater is 2,000 feet below the 

 rim of the crater. Similar facts are presented by all 

 volcanic regions. 



(3) It further requires that there should be craters 

 over fifty miles in diameter, and that twenty and 

 thirty miles should be a common size. Facts give 

 no support to such an assumption. 



(4) It supposes that the high islands of the Pacific, 

 in the vicinity of the coral islands, abound in craters ; 

 while on the contrary, there are none, so far as is 

 known, in the Marquesas, Garnbier, or Society Group, 

 the three which lie nearest to the Paumotas. Even 

 this supposition fails, therefore, of giving plausibility 

 to the crater hypothesis. 1 It is no exaggeration to 

 claim that this ancient theory, having become utterly 

 untenable, has been everywhere abandoned. 



1 Dana, " Corals and Coral Islands," p. 219. 



