lline
limestone; and (3) those which are purely coralline. The first form a
chain of lofty cones and craters, lying in a E.N.E. and W.S.W.
direction, and rising from depths of over 1000 fathoms. Mr. J. J.
Lister, who has described the physical characters of these islands, has
shown very clearly that they lie along a line--probably that of a great
fissure--stretching from the volcanic island of Amargura on the north
(lat. 18 deg. S.), through Lette, Metis, Kao (3030 feet), Tofua, Falcon,
Honga Tonga, and the Kermadec Group into the New Zealand chain on the
south. Some of these volcanoes are in a state of intermittent activity,
as in the case of Tofua (lat. 20 deg. 30' S.), Metis Island, and Amargura;
the others are dormant or extinct. The whole group appears to have been
elevated at a recent period, as some of the beds of coral have been
raised 1272 feet and upward above the sea-level, as in the case of Eua
Island.[6] The greater number of the Pacific volcanoes appear to be
basaltic; such as those of the Hawaiian Group, which have been so fully
described by Professor J. D. Dana.[7] Here fifteen volcanoes of the
first class have been in brilliant action; all of which, except three,
are now extinct, and these are in Hawaii the largest and most eastern of
the group. This island contains five volcanic mountains, of which Kea,
13,805 feet, is the highest; next to that, Loa, 13,675 feet; after
these, Hualalai, rising 8273 feet; Kilauea, 4158 feet; and Kohala, 5505
feet above the sea; this last is largely buried beneath the lavas of
Mauna Kea. The group contains a double line of volcanoes, one lying to
the north and west of the other; and as the highest of the Hawaiian
Group rises from a depth in the ocean of over 2000 fathoms, the total
elevation of this mountain from its base on the bed of the ocean is not
far from 26,000 feet, an elevation about that of the Himalayas. Mauna
Kea has long been extinct, Hualalai has been dormant since 1801; but
Mauna Loa is terribly active, there having been several eruptions,
accompanied by earthquakes, within recent years, the most memorable
being those of 1852 and 1868. In the former case the lava rose from the
deep crater into "a lofty mountain," as described by Mr. Coan,[8] and
then flowed away eastward for a distance of twenty miles. The interior
of the crater consists of a vast caldron, surrounded by a precipice 200
to 400 feet in depth, with a circumference of about fifteen miles, and
co