THE ISLANDS 01- TTTK PACIFIC 



Photograph by J. W. Beattie 



SOLOMON ISLANDS VANITY 



The ornaments of a South Sea islander are few and simple. He likes a necklace of 

 beads or dog's teeth, or armlets made of plaited fiber or cut from single shells, and a crescent- 

 shaped decoration of large pearly shell. 



Surely these remarkable coral forma- 

 tions are among the most truly wonderful 

 evidences of lavish nature — mighty, far- 

 reaching, and enduring. 



There is nothing grander or more sub- 

 lime than to be brought face to face with 

 this ever-progressive and ever-expanding 

 phenomenon — this vast, restless force, by 

 which insular land-masses are formed and 

 protected by encircling reefs, the waters 

 of the ocean held in check and the fury 

 of the waves subdued. 



It is one of the greatest wonders of 

 nature, placed beyond the controlling in- 

 fluence of man, indestructible except by 

 its own evolutionary power, but limited 

 in range to the tropical waters of the 

 globe. In the Pacific Ocean it attains its 

 greatest development and on the Queens- 

 land coast it is strikingly represented by 

 the Great Barrier Reef, extending for 

 over a thousand miles along the shores to 

 Torres Strait and far beyond. 



As a field for the marine biologist, the 

 Great Barrier Reef, not yet fully ex- 

 plored, is of wide interest and has at- 

 tracted attention in most of the scientific 



centers of the world, alluring to its fasci- 

 nating waters representatives from both 

 hemispheres of the globe. 



A VOLCANIC BELT FROM JAPAN TO PERU 



Then, again, we find in this vast oceanic 

 region an immense volcanic influence, a 

 great seismic belt extending from Japan 

 to the Peruvian coast and including New 

 Guinea and New Zealand. 



In some of the island groups the vol- 

 canoes are still in a state of activity, and 

 several years ago the Samoan Island of 

 Savaii was for a time the scene of one of 

 the greatest eruptions ever witnessed. 



Most of the coralline islands of eastern 

 Polynesia, extending on both sides of the 

 Equator, bear traces of former volcanic 

 activity, as evidenced by the numerous 

 extinct craters scattered over the land- 

 masses. That they have long been quies- 

 cent is clear from the dense vegetation 

 everywhere covering the surface, except, 

 perhaps, on the precipitous crater rims, 

 where the sheer walls of rock afford little 

 encouragement to plant life. 



Few people realize that the Pacific 



