THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 
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waters immediately over the crater were violently agitated 
and tossed about, as if rushing over high cliffs, or raised 
to the boiling-point by the subterraneous fires. Some 
vessels sailing near the spot were struck by the falling 
lava masses, without, however, suffering much damage. 
This eruption was preceded by a violent earthquake. 
Another great volcanic eruption took place in 1881. 
Craters large and small, thermal springs, and other 
evidences of volcanic activity are common throughout 
the islands. Among them the most striking is, perhaps, 
the great crater on Maui Island, Haleakala, which is 
stated to be 15 miles in circumference and about 2000 
feet deep. Notwithstanding these potentialities for 
disaster, the Hawaiian group may be regarded as one 
of the most pleasant places of abode in the Pacific, 
rejoicing in a most healthful climate, a rich vegetation, 
and a merry, light-hearted race of natives. The mean 
coast temperature is about 74° Fahr., and the rainfall at- 
Honolulu below 40 inches. For these and other reasons 
the group has become a sanatorium for Americans, com¬ 
munication with San Francisco being now frequent and 
regular. The only severe endemic disorder is leprosy, 
which is said not to have existed in former years, though 
now rather common. The sufferers are segregated in the 
island of Molokai, and the memory of Father Damien’s 
life and death among them will long remain as a con¬ 
spicuous instance of heroic self-sacrifice. 
Of all the islands of the Pacific, the Sandwich group 
are, so far as their fauna is concerned, the most interesting. 
In most cases, in Polynesia and Mikronesia, the birds and 
mammals are few in number, and apparently the descend¬ 
ants of stragglers from the west, which, in the course of 
centuries, have chanced upon these remote and lonely 
islets. In Hawaii, though the size of the islands is such 
