ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN. ill 
In our report on these topics, we may adopt the following order 
of arrangement :— 
Chap. I.—A general review of the topography of the Pacific Ocean, 
and the constitution of its islands. 
Chap. I1.—An account of coral reefs and islands, and of their mode 
of formation. 
Chap. Il].—General remarks on the basaltic or igneous islands of 
the Pacific. 
Chap. IV—VII.—Geological descriptions of the groups of Pacific 
Islands, in the following order :—Hawaiian, Tahitian or Society, 
Samoan or Navigator’s, and the Feejee Group. 
Chap. VIII.—General considerations respecting the Pacific. 
General review of volcanic action in the Pacific. 
Mineral constitution of the basaltic islands. 
Origin of the valleys of the islands. 
Changes of level in the Pacific. 
General arrangement of land in the Pacific. 
Origin of the general features of the Pacific, and bearing of 
the facts upon the cause of the prominent features of 
the globe. 
Gt ee 
Ii TOPOGRAPHY OF THE OCEAN AND CONSTITUTION 
OP TES TiSi.AAN Dis: 
1. Geographical Distribution of the Islands.* 
Reviewing the ocean simply with reference to the relative position 
of land and water, we observe the striking fact that the islands are 
* It is important to the reader to be acquainted with the ethnographic distribution of 
islands in the Pacific; and we here give a brief notice of it, gathered from the Report on 
Ethnography, by our philologist, Mr. Horatio Hale. 
The Pacific is divided into three large regions :—1, Polynesia; 2, Melanesia; and 3, 
Micronesia. 
The first diyision, Polynesia, includes all the islands of the middle and eastern parts 
of the ocean, comprising the Sandwich Islands on the north, New Zealand on the south, 
and the various clusters intermediate, with all the islands eastward of the same to the 
farthest limits of the Paumotu Archipelago. ‘The groups included (see the chart) are 
as follows :—orth of the equator, the Hawaiian; south of the equator, the Nukuhivan 
or Marquesas, the Paumotu, Tahitian or Society, Atiu or Hervey, Samoan or Navigator, 
