UPOLU— MANONO — SAVAII. 95 



about fifteen feet high, and one hundred and twenty feet in circumfe- 

 rence ; several stone walls were also seen. In respect to these, there is 

 a tradition that they were built by the warriors of Vavao, who invaded 

 Upolu, and after their predatory warfare along the coast was over, 

 occupied this commanding position for the purpose of cutting off the 

 communication between the opposite sides of the island. The trees 

 growing on these mounds are nearly two feet in diameter, and the 

 missionaries have inferred from their inquiries that the invasion referred 

 to occurred seventy or eighty years ago. 



Messrs. Dana and Couthouy visited a lake called Lauto, which lies 

 to the westward of this pass, and in the centre of an extinct crater. The 

 edge of the crater was found to be two thousand five hundred and 

 seventy feet above the sea, and the descent thence to the water of the 

 lake is one hundred and twenty feet. These gentlemen succeeded in 

 obtaining a line of soundings across the lake, by cutting down trees, 

 and forming a raft of them. They found the depth in the middle nine 

 and a half fathoms, decreasing thence gradually in all directions to the 

 shore. The form of the lake is nearly circular, and it has a subterra- 

 nean outlet. The hill in which this crater is situated is conical, and 

 there is a low knoll at some distance to the south of it, which is the 

 only other elevation in the neighbourhood, above the general height of 

 the ridge. 



The border of the crater is clothed with the usual forest foliage of 

 these islands, which, however, exhibits here more than usual beauty, 

 being decorated with the finely-worked fronds of the arborescent ferns, 

 in widely-spread stars, and the graceful plumes of a large mountain 

 palm. 



The poets of the island have appreciated the beauty of the place, and 

 allude to the perpetual verdure which adorns the banks of the lake, in 

 the following line : 



" Lauuto'o e le toi a e lau mea." 



" Lauto, untouched by withered leaf." 



There is a legend connected with this lake, that has more of poetic 

 beauty and feeling than one would have supposed to exist among so 

 rude a people. It is as follows. 



Many generations since, during a war between Upolu and Savaii, a 

 number of war-canoes from the latter island crossed over to attack 

 Ulatamoa (or, as it is now called, Ulumoenga), the principal town in 

 the district of Aana. At the time of their approach, two brothers. 

 To'o and Ata, chanced to be paddling their canoes in the channel 

 oetween the reef and the shore, and before they could reach the land 



