may have been
originally 20 feet deep. Trees six feet in diameter are now growing in
the ruins of this platform. Remarkable ruins exist on some of the
Marquesas Islands, but they have not been clearly described.

At first, when these antiquities were noticed by seamen, it was
suggested that they were the remains of works constructed by the old
buccaneers; but closer examination soon put aside this theory. Neither
the buccaneers, nor any other people from Europe, would have constructed
such works; and, besides, it is manifest that they were ruins before any
crew of buccaneers sailed on the Pacific. The remains on Easter Island
were described by Captain Cook. It has now been discovered that such
remains exist at various points throughout Polynesia, and greater
familiarity with the islands will very likely bring to light many that
have not yet been seen by Europeans. The author of these papers,
referring to the old discarded suggestion relative to the buccaneers,
says: "Centuries of European occupation would have been required for the
existence of such extensive remains, which are, moreover, not in any
style of architecture practiced by people of the Old World."

It is stated that similar stone-work, consisting of "walls, strongholds,
and great inclosures," exists on the eastern side of Formosa, which is
occupied by a people wholly distinct in race from the Mongols who
invaded and occupied the other side. The influence to which these
ancient works are due seems to have pervaded Polynesia from the
Marquesas Islands at the east, to the Ladrone and Carolina Islands at
the west, and what is said of the present inhabitants of Ascension
Island might have a wider application, namely, "They create on the mind
of a stranger the impression of a people who have degenerated from
something higher and better." At a few points in Polynesia a small
portion of the people show Mongol traits. Dark-colored people, evidently
of the Papuan variety, somewhat mixed with the brown race it may be, are
found at various points in larger numbers; but the great body of the
Polynesians are a brown race, established (at a very remote period,
perhaps) by a mixture of the Papuans with the Malays. Now take into
consideration the former existence of a great Malayan empire, the wide
distribution of Malay dialects on the Pacific, and the various
indications that there was formerly in Polynesia something higher and
better in the condition of the people, and t