product it is safe to say that 150,000,000 pounds, or 75,000 tons will be produced this year.

GEOLOGY.

The geological formation of the group is altogether volcanic. Two celebrated volcanoes, Kilauea and Mauna Loa, are noted for their eruptions, and in some of their convulsions the world-famed outbursts of Ætna and Vesuvius "pale their ineffectual fires." Thus, in the island of Hawaii, according to the Journal, Geological Society, 1856, in 1840 a deluge of lava broke out ten miles below the crater of Kilauea. It spread from one to four miles wide, and reached the sea at a distance of thirty miles in three days, and for fourteen days plunged in a vast fiery cataract a mile wide over a precipice of 500 feet. In 1843 a similar stream flowed from the summit of Mauna Loa, and in 1855 the lava broke out at a spot 2,000 feet below the summit, on the opposite side to Kilauea, and continued for ten months, overflowing an area of 200,000 acres. The main stream was sixty-five miles long, from one to ten miles wide and from ten to 300 feet in depth. The records do not show any eruptions of Mauna Loa previous to 1832. There were outbursts in 1851, '52, '55 and '59. In 1868. one occurred accompanied by a severe earthquake. The last was in 1877.

SUGAR CANE.

The wonderful sugar-producing qualities of this little island group, now something like 70,000 tons per annum, is gradually calling the attention of the world to what might be done on other islands of the Pacific.

Many of these garden spots are peculiarly adapted to the growth of cane; the soil, climate and moisture necessary to its successful cultivation being found on every hand.

The sugar cane, saccharum officinarum, is a perennial plant, of the family of grasses, cultivated sorghum and broom-corn being familiar examples of the species. The cane is not found native in any country, never producing seeds, and is only reproduced from cuttings. There are many varieties, but the best is the Otaheite, or Bourbon, grown successfully in the Society group.

Sugar is mentioned at a very early period, being used then only as a medicine. It was introduced into Persia about the ninth century. In the tenth century it was cultivated and formed an article of trade in Spain.

It was first cultivated in Madeira in 1420, and shortly afterwards in the Canary Islands. After the discovery of America it was introduced into Mexico, San Domingo, Brazil, etc., and about the same time into Africa and the Indian Archipelago. In our own country it was first cultivated by the Jesuits, near New Orleans, in 1751.

HISTORY.

In regard to the discovery of these islands by Captain Cook, I am led to believe that he was by no means the original discoverer, but that like many other navigators on the great oceans of the world, it was a discovery for him, while in truth it may have been known to others many ages previous.

it is believed that the Hawaiian Islands were first discovered by the Spaniards, and were often seen by

the Spanish galleons on their yearly passages between Acapulco and Manilla in the sixteenth century. According to tradition, two Spanish vessels from Mexico were wrecked on the island of Hawaii about the year 1525. Their crews mixed with the native race, whose descendants, it is said, can even now be distinguished by their complexion.

The Spanish charts of the Pacific Ocean, dated in the sixteenth century, give the position of the islands with some accuracy, and call them by names, describing the appearance which each island presented to the Spanish navigators when seen from their vessels. These charts were known in England when Captain Cook sailed on his voyages of discovery; and as the London charts of 1777, the year before Cook first visited the islands, record their existence, this English navigator cannot be considered as their discoverer.

About the year 1740, according to tradition, a ship landed a crew of white men on the island of Oahu. The natives knew the value and uses of iron before Cook arrived. They stole his boat and broke it up

to

get the iron from it, in Kealeakua Bay, where his ships anchored in January, 1779, and where he was killed in a combat with the natives on the 14th of February, while negotiating, on the shore, for the return of his

boat.

The French navigator, La Perouse, who also was killed by Pacific savages, visited the islands in 1786. In 1790 the first trading ship arrived-the American ship Eleanor. The English explorer, Vancouver, arrived in 1792, and brought from California the first cattle that the islands had seen. In 1793 the harbor of Honolulu was discovered and entered by a trading vessel from the west coast of America. In 1820 the