The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-03-01
THE TRAGEDY IN THE PACIFIC.
South Sea Islands That Were Swept
 By the Tidal Wave on Monday.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
 No part of the Pacific Is more thiekly sprinked with atolls than the Paumotu Islands in the southeast corner of that island world There are hundreds of these little islands, most Of them in la- ! goons surrounded by coral reefs, which In ordinary conditions shield them from the storms and waves.
 The Pacific islanders divide their | islands into high and low islands. Thus ! another name for the faumota Islands. ! often seen on the maps. is the Low Is- | lands.
 The Low Islands are those of coral for nation rising, as Il rule. not more than twenty or thirty feet above the level of the sea. The High Islands are of volean- ic origin, sometimes rising 10 a height of 5000 feet among their mountains, and in the Hawaiian group to still greater ele- vation.
 The French possessions in this south- | cast part of the island world are divided into the Low Islands on the east and the i smaller group of High Islands on the west Tahiti, whose summits rise to a ! height of 1000 feet is on the western edge | of the area of the Low Islands, while to the east of 1t stretch away the small, | this French region. Papeete. the chief town of Tahiti is the center of admin | istratlon for all these islands.
 The Paumotu Islands extend over an area of some 100000 square miles; in other words, they are dispersed over a space that Is nearly half as large again as the state of Texas.
 Their population Is very small. If they
 had been thiclkly populated like many of the High Islands the calamity would have involved a far greater loss of life As might be supposed, all industrial and commercial development is almost im- | possible because the sparse population is scattered over so vast territory. There are few excellent harbors among the | islands, but the largest towns are mere villages.
 These remote archipelagoes lie $500 miles from the nearest port of America. 1 They can never possess any natural re- l sources beyond their palm groves and pearl fisheries.
 It is different with Tahiti and the High Islands to the west of 1t. When the Pan- anna canal is opened these islands vii. be situated, as far shipping interests arc concerned. exactly midway between Gen. 1 tral America and Australia. They will | then take a foremost position in the | Poynesan world.
 The orange cotton, coffee sugar eane and other important products thrive. About 5O0O0 acres of land on the la--
 islands are available for plantations. | The soil is fertile. the population Is quite large and these islands, therefore, are certain to become the center of a | brisk trade when the Panama canal places them right in the pathway of steamships plying between Europe and i Australia
 Pitcairn Island the romantic rock in- habited by the descendants of the | Bounty mutineers, is right on the south- l crn edge of the wind and wave-swept rcsicn of the Low Islands. No fears need be entertained. however. that the i islanders have suffered to a disastrous extent. though their growing crops may | have been injured by the wind Their ! little rock with an area of about square mile rises high above the sea and is of volcanic origin.