Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-01-14

EWN HERE is rest in an ocean voyage. The receding
81 shores shut out the hum of the busy world; the
expanse of water soothes the eye by its very
vastness; the breaking of the waves is music to
the and there is medicine for the in the salt
sea breezes that invite Sleep AT first is disturbed
sometimes quite soby the motion of the vessel but this
passes away completely that before many days the dip
ping of the ship is really enjoyable and finds pleas
in ascending the hills and descending the valleys into
which the deck sometimes to be converted.
If one has regarded the Pacific as unknown ,
untraversed sea, the impression will be removed by
glance at map recently published by the United States
government map with which every traveller
should equip himself On this map the Pacific is covered
with blue lines indicating the shortest routes of travel
between different points, with the number of miles, The
first thing that strikes is that the curved line incat
ing the northern route between San Francisco and Yoko
hama is only 1886 miles long, while the apparently
straight line between the two points is 791 miles long
the difference being explained by the curvature of the
earth, although it is hard to believe that in following
the direct line ship would have to climb such
mountain range of water, to speak, to make it
shorter to ten degrees north The time between the
United States and the japanese coast has recently been
reduced to less than eleven days. but the northern route
not pleasant at this of the year, and sailed
the Manchuria (September27 going 90 degrees
farther south via Honolulu This route 545 miles
and made in about sixteen days when the weather is
good
The Manchuria is one of the leviathans of the Pa
cifc and is owned by Mr. Hartman, president of the
Union and Southern Pacific railways. The ships
suggests the orient more than three fourths being Chi
nese all wearing the queue and clad in the national garb
There is also suggestion of orient in the joss house and
opium den Of the Chinese in the Storage
Day Lost Forever
In crossing the 1sOth meridian we lost day, and
going all the way around cannot 1t,
those who the Pacific. We Saturday
morning October Z, and at o'clock notified that
Sunday had begun and the remainder of the day OBJ
served as the Sabbath October 3D.
According to the chart map referred to above
there three centers Of traffic in the Pacific
Honolulu the most important of ALL the Midway islands,
160 miles northwest Of Honolulu and the Samoan isl
ands 200 miles to the south The Society islands,
about the distance to the southeast of Honolulu,
and Guam 500 miles from the main land of Asia,
centers Of less Importance.
Honolulu and Hawaiian Islands
Our ship reached Honolulu early on the morning of
the sixth day out, and had breakfast the island.
The Hawaiian islands (inhabted) number eight and
tend from the southeast to the northwest covering about
six degrees of longitude and nearly four of latitude OF
these eight islands Hawaii the southernmost one is the
largest having of nearly 1920 square miles and
population of nearly $4,000 Hilo, its chief city, sit
uaed the east Shore is the second Hawaiian city or
Importance end contains some 900 inhabitants The
island of Oahu upon which Honolulu is situated, is third
in size but contains the largest population almost 600OO
of which 900 dwell in the capital The islands
small and surrounded by such of water as
to remind of toy land, and yet there great
mountains there piercing the clouds at height of
$4,000 feet Immense cane fields stretch as far as the
eye can reach and busy people of different coors and
make large annual addition to country s
wealth. On of the islands is active volcano which
furnishes thrilling experience to those who hardy
enough to ascend its sides and GROSS the lava lake,
grown cold which surrounds the present crater Each
island has extinct VOLCANOES, of these,
called the punch bowl being within the city limits of
Honolulu. On one Of the islands is leper colony