14 



INDEX TO THE PACIFIC ISLANDS. 



Hurricanes seldom occur in the open Pacific, but in the region of Samoa and Fiji 

 and farther to the west are far from uncommon. The whole of the north-west portion 

 between 20 and 45° N. is subject to cyclonic storms called typhoons. A capital review 

 of these storms, both hurricanes and typhoons, is to be found in Segelhandbuch filr den 

 Stillcn Ozean of the German Hydrographic Board, Hamburg, 1897. 



Climate. — From the great range in elevation from the coral islet over which 

 the storm waves break to the heights of the island of Hawaii where the volcanic peaks 

 closely approach the line of 14,000 feet; from the winds of constant direction in the 

 eastern half to the fickle airs of the Solomon Islands : there is even in the main portion 

 of Oceania which is within the tropics a great variety of climate. In the trade wind 

 regions the moisture brought in the breezes is mainly precipitated on the windward 





it: . 



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MATUKU 



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CoKAI. ISLANDS. 



FIG. I. 



HIGH ISLAND. 



side of high islands leaving the lee side often dry and desert-like, while where the 

 monsoons prevail both sides get a share of the rain and the vegetation is more luxuri- 

 ant and uniform. Indeed the rain is often superabundant on some groups of the 

 western Pacific, as the early Spanish navigators found to their disgust, for in those 

 days the seamen had no proper shelter and had to cook their food on the open deck. 

 The dry climate of the Hawaiian Islands where the natives could wear bark cloth had 

 its counterpart in the cool and wet New Zealand where the same Polynesian had to 

 make his garments of the warmer and more durable flax which he ingeniously made 



water-proof. Xew Zealand and its dependencies alone extend beyond the tropics, and 



[98] 



