The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-01-06
An Interesting Article By Prof
Albert S. Lyons.
WHAT OUR COUNTRY IS MADE OF.
Lava Formation, Surrounded by Coral
Reefs-Two Parallel Lines of Volcanic
Vents A Paper Read Before the
Social Science Club.

luSly Simple anu obvious. d line, Oh
rather two approximately parable
lines of volcanic vents in mid-ocear
have heaped up mountains of lava
mostly poured out in generous
floods, and have studded these more
or less thickly with cinder cones and
planted at their base in some in
stances tufa cones; great faults have
occurred here and there, giving rise
to lines of perpendicular cliffs.
The ocean beating ON the coast
lines, driven by almost perennial
trade winds, and rains of tropical
abundance among the mountains
have carried away portions of the
new made land, forming bluffs, raw
ines and water courses. Finally the
coral polyp has surrounded the land
with fringes of reef, which in a few
instances have been elevated suffici
emily to form areas of dry land
Few of our geological formations
have q history which includes more
than two or three epochs. Pick up a
pebble on the beach. The waves
have worn it to smoothness as they
have played with it for the last hun
dred years or few hundred years.
They received it from streamlet in
which it may have been the sport of
the running water few decades or
centuries, having been torn away
from where the original lava food
left it either by the steam itself, or
by the weathering of the valley side
The grains of divine sand on Wal
kiki beach might tell somewhat
longer story-how they had been
separated by the action Of the waves
from the more earthly part of the
tufa In which they had been embed
ded, the tufa fragment itself having
been part of the cone of Diamond
Head blown to pieces by steam ex-
plosion, cemented into conglome
rate by lime deposited from boiling
springs-detached again by torrent
caused by December shower on the
steep bare side of the mountain. Be
fore it was tufa, it may have con-
sisted partly of new lava from the
molten source, partly of material
torn from the fissure through which
it had been elected, and this may
have included besides lava not only
coral reef rock with she'll fragments
and other organic remains, but por-
tions of sedimentary formations hav
ing a history similar to that of the
pebble just spoken of.
1t is possible that some of the
divine grains have passed through
the whole of this series of changes,
although the majority came no doubt
from the lava through which the
assure opened.
Because in most cases the geolo
gical facts are so easily compre
hended and so illustrative of the ele-
mentary principl of dynomical
geology, the study may seem Ito
some) to lack the keen interest which
attaches to the solution of such com
plicated problems as present them
selves In other older countries.
Besides we may not hope in our
study here to get any glimpses back
though the long vista OF geologic
ages which elsewhere 80 broadens
the thought of the student.
Yet is the subject sufficiently full
of interest to claim share of atten-
ton from every one who loves
to read the book of nature
and the very simplicity of
the study should be encouragement
to those of us who can devote little
time to such diversions of mind,
since it is possible for us to gather
items of information hitherto nm
noted which may form really reli
able contribution to science; this we
should be much less likely to be able
to do in either botany or zoology.
Details of fact carefully observed
and recorded can not fail to be of
value when the time comes to write
the full geologic history of the ISL
ands, and to connect that history
with that of other lands. Even apart
from this permanent value, the study
has a popular interest of its own, to
say nothing of possible utilitarian re-
suits, such as the locating of artesian
reservoirs, etc.
It is no reproach to the science to
say that everywhere the geologist is
an eager and persistent fossil hunter.
Even in Hawaii nei he cannot be con-
tent to allow that such quest is a
vain one. It is true that organic re-
mains can be but seldom preserved
in volcanic formations. Yet now and
then even molten lava will take won
derfully sharp impressions of objects
over which it may flow, and such inn
pressions may in rare instances be
preserved for ages unchanged, and
SO reveal to the patient searcher i'm
portant facts regarding our ancient
flora or fauna. There Is in the Bish
Cd Museum a remarkable specimen
that illustrates this possibility, which
otherwise might be thought wholly
fanciful. 1t is lava from Mauna Kea
- therefore, not very recent. Thou
sands of years have passed since it |
nodded itself into the intricate pat
tern of the charred tree trunk over
which it flowed, but every line is as
distinct as though the coating had
been made last week, and the fidelity |