The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-09-11

Sea Island member of this Board ba,
fallen the duty of acting as yonr
pilot In general preliminary survey
OF the island world of the Pacific
l nave many times approached it from
the east, hut not until fin September
Iso4' after threading our way through
eastern seas and straits, we emerged
from the Celebes Sea, and passing be-
tween two lofty, smoking volcanoes
as through majestic gateway, met
the broad swell of the open Pacific.
nave 1elt that l had seen the main
entrance to this ocean of magnificent
distances, its 27,000,000 square miles
OF area dotted with islands, and In
stlnct with human life. Yet, although
we bore straight away to the east
ward for nearly 5000 miles to Pona-
pc, our first port in Micronesia. never
a sail did we meet, nor sight of other
land. Little wonder that the Spanisb
navigators of the sixteenth century
although, as they supposed, thorough
iy exploring this region, discovered
only few of these islands! Neighbor-
~ enough they seem, as one looks at
the map, but when one reflects that
the fifty inhabited islands of the Caro-
line group, for instance, are scatter
ed over a sea area equal in size to
the Mediterranean, he realizes a. little
of their isolation
In order not to find ourselves en-
tirely at sea regarding the relative
position of the many groups of islands
we may class them in four divisions.
Malaysia, extending southeast from
the Malay Peninsula, and containing
the most land; Melanesia, the Black
Islands, which lie nearer to Australia.
Micronesia, the Little Islands, con-
tanning, as the name signifies, the
least land, and occupying a central
position, and Polynesia, the Many Is
lands, lying to the east, and covering
the widest extent of sea area. Each
division contains several groups of is
lands, and it is interesting to note
that the general trend of the land in
most of these groups is from northwest
to southeast.
The islands are of two kinds-the vol
canic, the result of mighty upheavals
from the bed of the ocean. at times of
great eruptive activity, and the coral
islands, the gradual work, through
thousands of years, of the tiny coral
polyp.
There are several interesting theories
regarding the formation of the low
coral islands, but that which is most
generally accepted is that the local
polyp began its work in shoal water
about early volcanic islands. and while
the gradual subsistence of the floor of
the ocean caused these islands to sink.
the ages, the faithful polyp
continued building upward, thus
forming reefs around volcanic is
lands. The total disappearance, at
length, of an island thus surrounded,
would account for the lagoon of
water, which, in most low
coral islands, lies within the encir
cling reef.
MISLEADING PICTURES.
You will remember the pictured
atoll of the biographies, a perfect ring
of land, unbroken save by one opening
which seems by no means large enough
TO have admitted the ship, which,
with all sail set, occupies a large
of the lagoon? This is
most misleading. In reality the con-
Meeting reef, of irregular shape, is
often largely under water, but stud
ded with islets of various shape and
size. presenting, to untutored eyes, the
of so many distinct is
lands. Sometimes these islets are so
regular as to look like beads on a
string, a wider space here and there
to the fancy That
bead has dropped off; here one
sees lone stretches of reef without
4 sign of land, succeeded by a few
slets of irregular forms; there, an
1nbroken sweep of land, stretching
in a curve of twenty-five miles ABOUT
an arm of the great lagoon, across |
which a vessel may steam ten hours
to reach anchorage. But Woe TO the |
captain who thinks to make a snort |
cut, and does not follow the passages
marked upon his charts!
ON these low islands, with the lana |
scarcely a quarter of a mile in WIDTH |
and not more than ten or tweiVe hee'
above sea level, vegetation, aslde from
the dense growth of cocoanut trees
g scanty. and water is secured from
arackish wells. which rise ana iali
9th the tide.
Yin strong contrast to the atolls stano
he elevated coral islands, and most
beautiful of all, the high Islands OIL
Volcanic or basaltic formation aher
,eenlv serrated mountains dressed III
living green" from summit to oase'
heir waterfalls leaping 1upilantis'
heir rivers showing, to one VINO
skirts the shore, vistas of tropical
,eauty. in the luxuriance OF VINE
framed forest giants, regally adorned
With festoons of swaying ferns anu
,cboing with the notes of strange
,irds. The changeful beauty OF the
nal sea, and the white, sursine
vreath of the eternally numbering
,raakers on the encircling barrier
,eef complete a picture of WONDERFUL
harm, Here, 1.-THE abundance of the
,aa.. is richly completed by the Lavish
,ield of the land in taro ana preau-
.r,,;t bananas in score OF vai1elles'
nd many of the tropical fruits Iaini-
lar to us here. - +hai
Aside from the Malaysians OF the
,raa+ continental Islands, the people
3 tbis island world belong 10 Iour
aces. Polynesians, Papuans; Fl 9ians
"a ,fscronesians. The Poiynesidhs
re found from Samoa on the Wes1 -
4