302 SOCIETY ISLANDS. 
The small elevation, two hundred feet high, on the shores west of 
Matavai, called One Tree Hill, is the only spot where I have sus- 
pected the former existence of a lateral crater. Its tufa character and 
the inclination of the beds, so unlike, in both respects, the rocks of the 
hills back, point out the spot as the very probable site of one of those 
subordinate places of eruption, or those hills of tufa (like Diamond 
Hill, of Oahu) that often form about active volcanoes. The hill has a 
bluff front on the water, where it has been worn down by the sea, and 
it contains some fractures or fissures which dislocate the dikes that 
intersect the tufa. These fissures appear to belong to the place 
rather than to the mountain. 
As the southern peninsula was not examined, we can speak less de- 
cidedly respecting the nature of this part of the island. Yet an ana- 
logy with many of the Sandwich Islands, will bear us out.in the sup- 
position that this peninsula was another centre of volcanic eruption. 
Tahiti, if so, originated in the action of two volcanic centres ; the two 
acting together, became united at base, and thus formed the island 
with its isthmus. ‘The bearing of these centres from one another cor- 
responds in direction with the lines of volcanic action through the 
Pacific. ‘Tahiti, therefore, may be another twin island, hke Maui 
and Oahu. 
Of the other islands of the Society Group, I had only distant views. 
I have gathered a few facts with regard to them from different 
sources, and mostly from Ellis, and Tyerman and Bennett. 
Eimeo.—The island of Eimeo was described to me as having a part 
of the interior low with rounded hills, enclosed by high mountains 
which often present steep walls of rock inward. It is also remarkable 
for its deep harbours. 'Taloo Harbour, on the north side, (called, more 
properly, Oponohu,) was visited by the Vincennes. It is nearly three 
miles deep, with abrupt shores. Passing up the valley, the central 
amphitheatre is entered. “The ground clothed with exuberant vege- 
tation rises gradually from the coast towards this interior district, 
where the whole surface bursts, as it were, into abrupt and precipitous 
elevations, the crests of which are naked rock of stupendous bulk, and 
strange forms. Some seem to stand on very narrow bases, with 
broad and beetling fronts; one facing the harbour resembled a huge 
tower surmounted by a sharp spire.” “'The proportions of this 
temple of earth and sky (for such it appeared) were so harmonious 
and exact, that its immensity was lost at first sight, for want of a con- 
