The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-12-11
- ..Hnuniinn YoIcanoes...


work from a scientific standpoint, but
one extraordinarily full of interest to the
general reader here and elsewhere.
Published as portion OF the annual re-
port of the United States Geological Sur
vey, at the Government Printing Office
in Washington, one might reasonably
have expected an official Blue Book, to
be delectable reading only for blue /
stocking or Boston belle OF 'culchaw.
Captain Dutton has, however, so pleas !
antly blended his Clarence with rhyolite, /
trachyte and erosional forms in his inky |
Caldera that he dishes up for us an Ola !
Podrida of learning and w.t. with graphic !
scenic description, accurate, vigorous
and terse, yet poetical withal. He hap
/ PLY turns prosaic point into an inter
! esting fact, and even in scientific argu-
ment yields the attractive pen, which
| draws on the reader to cheerfully fol-
/ low, instead of compelling him to wade
through a mass of dry detail with set
teeth and overstrung brain to reach a
result.
Apart from his main SUBJECTIVE vol
canic phenOmena-over which extended
travel and research have evidently given
him mastery control, Captain Dutton
appears to have been a keen and shrewd
observer and patient student of all his
surroundings during his visit to these
Islands. Continual outcroppings mark
the analytical and evidently friendly
mind at work upon our people, their
lives, manners and customs, tracing re-
suits from causes and deity interweav-
ing hope and encouragement with re-
luctantly admitted depressing influences.
So pleasantly is the book written, so
widespread is its general information
about the Islands, that one naturally
turns more than once to the cover to
ascertain whether its title is not Hawaii
and the Hawaiians," with the volcanic
phenomena made more serious and
prominent than is generally the case with
most writer's But these outcroppings
are but the artistic work of clever writer
to bind the attention of the reader more
clearly and firmly to the successive links
of the chain of ideas in regard to the vol
canoes, and to place the reader en- traine
with the author by sharing thought with
thought while treading side by side with
him over well defined and attractively
described paths. The volume contains
thirteen chapters, about one hundred and
thirty pages and some thirty illustrations.
geographically and artistically the work
i i - Z
Printing Office of our powerful neighbor.
The illustrations especially are selected
: with discrimination and reproduced i'll
the highest style of art; and, as the work
is only lightly bound in paper, the
reader may select his own binding.
The reliability of the writer is proved
in the discussion of that most interesting
of all mysteries-the Ozark Problem of
the Volcano" Many students of this
subject are prone-to accept, too readily,
1 enunciated theories or ideas without
sufficiently close analysis and conse-
, quently arrive at a, to them, satisfactory
solution of the problem because they
have practically cooked the accounts. -
Captain Dutton, on the other hand,
starts in modestly, and cautiously feeling
his way for facts, finding out whether
: there are fishes or not in the pond before
q he casts his net. Says he, after taking
7 us with him step by step on his travels
4 and through his investigations: owe
a may now proceed to gather together the
various facts which we have observed
r and scrutinize them with a
view to ascertaining whether they shed
any new light, however feeble, upon the
: dark problem of the volcano. Indeed
, nature presents us with no problem more
difficult and inscrutable. We may not
e hope for much new light, but even though
K we gain but very little, it may serve tC
, keep alive the hope of an ultimate solu
e ton" With a calm and unprecedented
mind he silently reviews his facts, anC
u we follow him with wrapt interest to the
y end of the chapter to discover-what he
: also desires to discover missing factor
q 'When we discover it we shall discover
d the secret of the Volcano"
/ In the interests of scientific truth, Cap
,, tain Dutton resists the extreme tempta
/ ton of foisting upon the world, with the
II high authority of the Geological Survey
l. Department of the United States-as
high an authority as any in the world;
pseudo-discovery that would have haC
many followers. The Captain announces
L as fact that in the centuries to come
, there will certainly result constitutional
> change in this beautiful Island, and tina
L too without the aid of human agency il
/ the destruction of picturesque hills anC
& valleys. Therefore" says he, after dis
GUESSING the denudation and degradation
e of the valley walls and slopes of the
II windward fronts of the Hawaiian Islands
u cit seems to me that very few hundred
u thousand years would suffice to effect the
, entire destruction which l have inferred
d for the windward side of Oahu" The
chapter on Kilauea will be read with
: vivid interest, for the writer in plain anc
simple language mirrors to us, without {
trace of the usual exaggeration, that aw
= full sight where "horror and desolatior
reign supreme"
1t would be a pleasure to quote al
- length many DaSSapeS from this interaSt