468 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
Oahu is made up of two long mountain ridges, with a plateau between. 
It bears Honolulu, the capital, and this on account of possessing the only 
really good harbour in the group. 
Molokai is a long mountain running east and west, with the northern 
half removed. Thus it presents to the sea on the north a stupendous pre- 
cipice. From this about the middle projects a piece of low flat rich land, 
used as the famous leper settlement. 
Maui is composed of two mountains, the higher of which (10,000 feet) is 
a vast extinct voleano, the crater 27 miles round broken by two great gaps. 
The crater is the most remarkable upon earth as resembling a smaller 
lunar volcano, having several craters rising from its 2,000-feet deep cavity. 
It is known as Haleakala, or the House of the Sun. 
Hawaii is the great island, that from which the group takes its name. 
The great voleano Mauna Loa (18,600 feet) stands in the centre. To the 
north is a beautiful mountain still higher—Mauna Kea, and there are smaller 
ones. Mauna Loa is the most interesting of all voleanoes. It does not 
show its height, the base being 60 miles across, and there are no peaks. 
I exhibit a diagram showing its general shape. The effect when on the 
mountain is that of being on a plateau. There are two extinct main craters 
besides those that occasionally burst out. The summit crater, 18,600 feet 
above the sea, is always active; the better-known Kilauea, 4,000 feet 
above the sea, on the east side, is, too, always active. It is clear from the 
difference of level that the two can have no connection. These craters do 
not shoot up stones and ashes; they are lakes of molten lava,-and con- 
stantly change their levels, occasionally overflowing. 
There are on the islands about 60 sugar mills, several with more than 
one plantation attached. 
The Hawaiians are often spoken of as Malayo-Polynesians, but this is 
almost certainly a mistake. The whole subject of the origin of the race 
is discussed with great ability by Judge Fornander in his work on the Poly- 
nesian races. 
Political.—Formerly each place had its own chief. Warfare was the 
normal state. The chiefs were a splendid race, well marked off from the 
common people. Descent was wisely reckoned in the female line. The 
finest women became tabu to the chiefs, and thus the superiority was pro- 
. duced. The old Greek race probably produced no specimens of humanity 
physically finer, and in intellect they ranked very high. 
Late in the last century a chief of Western Hawaii, Kamehameha, 
conquered first his own and then the other islands. He died in 1819. 
His successor insulted the national deities and broke the tabu. Very 
soon afterwards the first batch of missionaries reached the islands. 
