Avams.— Polynesia. 57 
by 16 feet, and from 8 to 12 feet high. These monuments were formed of 
stone different from any he saw on the island. Of the other high islands, 
Ponape and Ualan contain remains of temples and fortifications of stone on 
a very extensive scale, which were the work of a civilized people. Thus 
while the dwellings of men and tropical vegetation were steadily disappear- 
ing beneath the waters of the Pacific, the houses and forests on the coast of 
America were being raised many thousand feet above the sea level; for not 
only did Mr. Darwin find the remains of human dwellings on uninhabitable 
elevations, but he also found fossil trees allied to the Norfolk Island pine at 
a height of 7000 feet—trees that once flourished on the shores of the 
Pacific. i 
Mr. Ellis gives an interesting account of the antiquities of the Society 
group. Temples were numerous on all the islands ;—not buildings such as 
is generally understood by the name, but rather a kind of pyramid, com- 
posed of massive stone blocks, and ascended on the outside by steps, on the 
top of which was the altar. These temples were secluded by the lofty 
spreading tomano, camarina and thespesia trees, and the whole enclosed by 
high walls. One of these temples measured 270 feet in length, 94 feet in 
width, and 50 feet in height, and was ascended by a flight of steps of which 
the first was six feet from the ground. On the top, where the sacrifice was 
offered, it was 180 feet by 6 feet. The description of these temples, and the 
sacred rites, reminds one of the teocalli of Mexico, which they resembled 
not only in structure and in the shape of the idols, but also in the cells of 
the priests and the human sacrifices. Even the terrible drum that roused 
the Mexicans to pursue Cortes and his followers when they tried to escape 
from their town at dead of night, had often struck terror into the heart of 
the Tahitians as its ominous roll from the altar of a neighbouring temple 
roused them from sleep. Few remains of those temples now exist, as the 
early converts displayed as hearty zeal in destroying them as the Spaniards 
did in sweeping away every vestige of Mexican architecture. 
Mr. Ellis also mentions remains of stone terraces, stone axes, and other 
implements found at a good depth from the surface, and he concludes that 
the islands have been occupied from a very remote period. In the “ Transae- 
tions of the Royal Geographical Society " I read of a pile of immense stones 
on the island of Tongatabu, said to be a burial place, although there is not 
on the island a similar stone as large as a pigeon's egg. In our own ** Tran- 
sactions"' a stone fort is described on the island of Rapa, said to be of very 
remote age. * 
Supposing that a great continent once extended across the Pacific, as is 
maintained by scientific men, and even asserted in native traditions, we 
* Hall “ Trans. N.Z. Inst,” Vol. L, p. 128. New Ed. Vol. L, p. 75. 
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