468 Tran sactio ns. — M iscellaneous . 



Oaliu 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 volcano, 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 volcano Mauna Loa (13,600 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 volcanoes. 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, 13,600 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. 



