314 SAMOAN ISLANDS. 
undulating. At short intervals of a few miles, the horns and gently 
swelling sides of one crater after another may be clearly distinguished. 
There are four or five of these craters on the outline of the ridge in 
the Western district, and as many in the Eastern district of the island, 
(figures, page 325.) We shall return to this subject, and give a 
particular description of the craters examined, after completing our 
general remarks on the features of the island. 
The whole island is covered with forests; or rather, it is one dense 
forest from the extreme east to the west end, and from the water’s 
edge to the very summit of the most rugged peaks. The natives 
have spread their cocoanut groves and bread-fruit trees along the 
shores, but in many places the line of forests remains yet unbroken, 
and nothing can exceed its richness and beauty. Shrubbery and 
sugar-canes cover some parts of the lower declivities of the mountains, 
but there is nowhere a spot of natural pasture land. 
The island is in general well watered. ‘There is scarcely a day in 
the year without low and heavy clouds about the summits of the 
mountains. Many streams of moderate size flow down both sides 
of the island to the sea. ‘The rivers Falifa and Salangi, on opposite 
sides of the same ridge, are the largest. The latter rises just south of 
the Fangaloa Mountains, winds about for twelve or fourteen miles 
as a mountain torrent, occasionally tumbling in cascades through 
deep gorges, and reaches the sea at Salangi. It is two fathoms deep 
at its mouth, but rapidly changes to a brawling streamlet, a short dis- 
tance back. The Falifa River is described as still longer in its wind- 
ing course. A third of a mile from the sea it comes dashing along 
over a rocky bed, noisily leaps down a precipice of thirty feet, and 
then flows slowly and quietly on to the bay. Below the falls it 
averages by our estimate, eighty feet in width, and has more than 
three feet of water through this whole distance. 
Smaller streamlets are numerous: one empties at Apia, another at 
Lotofanga, two at Sinaapu; but they scarcely merit naming. 
The eastern and western extremities of the island are poorly sup- 
plied with streams, on account of the cellular character of the volcanic 
rocks and the subterranean passages among them. From Apia west- 
ward there are many fountains gushing out along the shores, proceed- 
ing from the subterranean waters; the number is at least one a mile. 
Some of the streams flow for a while in the mountains, and then 
suddenly sink to emerge again in these springs of the coast, or beneath 
the sea. 
