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AUSTRALASIA. 



islets, which constitute a secondary group within the archipelago itself. Each of 

 these has its volcanoes, whose height bears a somewhat uniform proportion to the 

 size of the island. The loftiest is Haleahala (" Abode of the Sun "), whose vast 

 cone, 10,200 feet high, occupies the southern part of the island of Maui. Its crater, 

 one of the largest on the globe, has a circuit of no less than 15 miles and a depth 

 of over 2,000 feet. The two sections of Maui are connected by a strip of sand, six 

 or seven feet high, which is incessantly destroyed and renewed under the con- 

 flicting action of winds and waves. Beyond Maui follow the islands of Oahu 

 with several cones, Kauai, Niihau, and Kaula, terminating the chain of the 

 Sandwich Archipelago towards the north-west. Then follows for 1,800 miles in 



Fi"-. 222. — Lava Streams ok Kilauea. 



the direction of Japan a range of reefs and islets, also probably volcanic, although 

 lavas have been found on only a small number of these upraised lands. The 

 traces of upheaval are everywhere conspicuous throughout the archipelago, and 

 here and there are met ancient beaches at different elevations along the slopes of 

 the hills. In one of the Maui group, a coral bank of apparently recent origin 

 runs for a considerable distance at a height of 500 feet above the present sea- 

 level, and a similar, though less distinct, formation fringes the great volcano in 

 Kauai Island at an altitude of no less than 4,000 feet. Since 1794 the shoals at 

 Honolulu have been upraised about four feet, to the great detriment of navigation. 

 Excluding the western reefs the whole of the Hawaiian archipelago lies within 



