60 



THAT S IT; 



besides conical volcanic peaks, are 

 found in this island. Mount Eoais 

 nearly 14,000 feet above the sea, 

 and its crater, 18, has a circumfe- 

 rence of about six miles and quar- 

 ter. The ancient crater, which has 

 become partly quiescent, is not 

 less than twenty-four miles round. 

 In May 1843, an eruption of this 

 mountain took place, which is 

 thus described by the Rev. Titus 

 Coan, an eye-witness : — 



" God is not only working 1 wonders in the 

 moral and civii, but also in the physical world 

 around us. You have heard of the great vol- 

 canic eruption near our station in 1840. Ano- 

 ther scene, of a similar kind, has recently taken 

 place about the same distance from us, but in 

 a dilfert nt direction, directly in the rear 

 of our station. On the 10th of January of 

 the present year, and just at the dawn of 

 day, we discovered a rapid disgorgement of 

 liquid fire from the summit of Mount Roa, 

 at an elevation of about 14,000 feet above the 

 sea. This eruption increased from day to day 

 for several weeks, pouring out vast floods of 

 fiery lava, which spread down the sides of the 

 mountain, and flowed in broad rivers, throwing 

 a terrific glow upon the heavens, and filling 

 those lofty mountainous regions with a sheen 

 of light. This spectacle continued till the 

 molten flood had progressed 20 or 30 miles 

 down the side of the mountain, and across a 

 high plain which stretches between the bases 

 of Mouna Roa and Mouna Kea. After many 

 weeks, in company with Mr. Paris, the mis- 

 sionary for Kan — a station south of Hilo— we 

 penetrated through a deep forest, stretching 

 between Hilo and the mountain, and reached 

 the molten stream which we followed to the 

 top of the mountain, and found its source in a 

 vast crater, amidst eternal snow. Down the 

 sides of the mountain the lava had now ceased 

 to flow upon the surface ; but it had formed for 

 itself a subterranean duct at the depth of 50 or 

 100 feet. This duct was vitrefied, and down 

 this fearful channel a river of fire was rushing 

 at the rate of fifteen or twenty miles an hour, 

 from the summit to the foot of the mountain. 

 This subterranean stream we saw distinctly 

 through several larce apertures in one side of 

 the mountain, while the burning flood rushed 

 fearfullv heneath our feet. Our visit was 

 attended with peril and inconceivable fatigue, 

 but we never regretted having made it, and 

 returned deeply affected with the majesty, the 

 sublimity, the power, and the love of that God 

 who 'lookethon the earth and it tremble th, 

 v ho touches the hills and they smoke; whose 

 presence melts the hills, and whose look causes 

 the mountains to flow down.' " 



The numerous islands of Poly- 

 nesia, represented by simple dots 



upon the maps, are either of voU 

 canic or coral formation. Tbey are, 

 in proportion to the vastness of 

 the Pacific Ocean, just such little 

 specks as they appear upon the 

 map ; yet they are large enough 

 to form the abode of numerous 

 tribes of men. # 



Coral islands are produced by 

 the stony secretions of coral ani- 

 malcules, "which are polyps of mi- 

 nute size. In appearance they 

 consist of little oblong bags of 

 jelly, closed at one end, but hav- 

 ing the other open, and sur- 

 rounded by tentacles,^ usually 

 six or eight, bordering the cen- 

 tral body like the rays of a star. 

 Countless myriads of these little 

 creatures associating together 

 form stony skeletons, 20, which 



294. 



produce, in course of time, coral 

 reefs, and a number of these reefs 

 formed in succession ultimately 

 produce islands. 



The process by which coral islands are 

 formed, clad with verdure, and inhabited, is 

 thus described in " Chamisso's Narrative of 

 Kotzebue's Voyages :" — " As soon as a reef 

 has reached such a height that it remains al- 

 most dry at low water at the time of ebb, the 

 corals leave off building higher ; sea-shells, 

 fragments of coral, sea-hedgehog shells, and 

 their broken-off prickles, are united by the 

 burning sun (through the medium of the ce- 

 menting calcareous sand, which has arisen from 

 the pulverization of the above-mentioned shelK) 

 into one whole or solid stone, which, strength- 

 ened by the continual throwing up of new 



* The native inhabitants of Polyrcesiabelcngrtotwo 

 races of the human family: the Malay, or brown tribes, 

 and the Polynesian, negroes or blacks, 



t Thread-like mouths or suckers. 



