THEIR GEOGRAPHY, THEIR VOLCANOES, AND THEIR PEOPLE.

BY

TITUS MUNSON COAN, M.D.

The Hawaiian Islands were discovered in the year 1542 by the Spanish navigator Juan Gaetano. Traces of this early visit may be found in a Spanish map of the sixteenth century which indicates the place of the islands, though somewhat incorrectly as to their longitude; and also in the lighter complexion and hair of some of the natives, which seem to indicate the crossing of their ancestors with European blood. Since the re-discovery of the group by Captain Cook in 1778 it has been generally known as the Sandwich Islands, a name conferred upon them by Captain Cook, in compliment to the British Lord of the Admiralty at the time. The Islanders themselves called their country Hawaii (Ha-vi-e) from the name of the principal island, the 'noting a sound more nearly akin to that of 1 The native name is thought by Fornander to be cognate with Java, and to indicate an early residence of the race in the East Indies. From

Hawaii comes our English-formed adjective Hawaiian, used to designate the group.

Where are these islands situated? Not in the South Pacific, as is thought by many who have not searched for them upon the map, but in the central Northern Pacific, close upon the tropic of Cancer, and about onethird of the distance on a great circle drawn south-westward from San Francisco to New Guinea. They are the most northerly of the dozen groups that are the habitat of the true Polynesian race. Their area is about 6,100 square miles; two-thirds of this are included in the principal island of Hawaii, which has about the same area as the State of Connecticut. Twelve islands are usually named as composing the group: four larger and four smaller, all inhabited, and four barren rocks; but besides these a string of scattered rocks and reefs extends far to the north-west of the group properly socalled. The islands occupy the segment of a circle convex towards the north-east, its chord having a length of about 400 statute miles. (Dutton.)

From San Francisco the distance to Honolulu, the capital, is about 2,100 miles; the Pacific Mail steamers make the trip in seven days, so that the islands are now within less than a fortnight's journey from the city of New York.

Except for the coral reefs that are found among them, the group is entirely of volcanic formation. The islands. appear to have been thrown up in successive order from the north-west to the south-east, the most ancient of the group being Kauai, upon which volcanic action ceased many centuries ago. Upon the next large island, Oahu, the soil is usually less deep and the erosion of the craters is