The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-03-26

| Prof. E. It. Tannatt of the state
agricultural college at Bozeman was
| for six years a resident engineer in the
| Hawaiian islands. The following in
teresting description of the islands and
their people was prepared for the
is the result of his personal observa-
tons:
THE AREA
AS You may be aware the Hawaiian
miles, about one-twenty-third the area
of the state of Montana. and are stu
ated in the Pacific ocean about 2.100
miles from the coast of California
being the tops Of very high mountains,
reaching a few thousand feet above
the surface of the ocean. Although
there is no doubt about how these is
lands were formed in mid-ocean, there
is no direct history as to how the
HaWaiians came to inhabit the same.
Racial features, language and ira
d1tlons ali point to the Hawaiians
being of Polynesian origin; how they
reached these isolated islands is a
question of interest. In some of their
most ancient folk lore we find that
they refer to time when they left
larger land and came by a chain of
islands to the present Hawaii If such
a record is correct and a chain of
islands did exist from the coast OF
Asia to Hawaii, then the same forces
tE-t, ;oI hxYiI n
leaving only the Hawaiian islands, the
Mfdways and Guam as the last re
naming links of the chain. AS the
volcanic action in the Pacific is by no
means extinct, the question naturally |
comes to US: "Will Old Ocean ever |
remove more of her gems, and will |
Hawaii of the Pacific become an |
Atlantis of the Atlantic?''
THE GEOLOGY.
To the student of geology these |
islands would make most interesting |
study. Generally the centers of all /
the islands are mountainous. Below |
the surface of the ocean the tiny polyp |
has encircIed each island with a band |
of coral, while Pluvius has brought |
from the slopes above the deposit" of |
rich volcanic ash and decomposed
tOChy WHICH tO-ddy pOSSiOlS tIiC
great sugar plantations, and has for
years made the kuleanas (homeS) of |
what was once a great people.
The island on which Honolulu is sit
iated, the island of Oahu, is a very
study of extinct volcanic
;raters. Diamond Head, the land
mark for all steamers to and from the
coast, and when once seen never to
De forgotten. forms the extreme south
east point of the island. Punchbowl,
lbout 2 IL miles distant, also marks
he remains of the second of this class
If mud volcanoes, while around and |
between the foot of these TWO dead |
giants nest1es the beautiful city of
honolulu.
From the northeast shore of the
sland we view the noted Pail. over
which the victorious Kamehameha | :
rove his armed enemy in the early |
history of the islands. This great |
oali, or bluff, at one time formed a
'ortion of what was once the largest |
olcano in the world, the larger por-
ion of which has already passed be-
leath the sea- leaving only a few scat
cred rocks and reefs to mark the ,
urial places of the great mountains
f the past. Within the remaining {
ortion of the crater are located '
eautiful rice and sugar plantations, :
While at Waihole and Waikoni are the 1
ummer resorts of many of the people Q
f Honolulu. 6
VOLCANOES.
The north shore of the island also l
two semicircles of other a
raters in each of which respectively t
estle Kahuku and Waimea planta- b
ions: while Wailua plantation occu-
les the connecting space between | T
lese two partial monuments of past s
ctiyity Thus we see in this small | O
,iand-25 by % miles-the remains OF
q less than six extinct volcanoes. | b
on the islands of Maui and Hawaii | G
re find the giants yet living, and it Is a
,deed a beautiful and awe-inspiring d
ght to look down several hundred p
,et into the crater of the greatest
ctiysa volcano in the world and see | t
le bubbling spouting. seething lava; 8
.aIizing that but comparatively t
lin shell of earth and water sep s