first whaler arrived-the ship Mary, from Nantucket. The lighthouse of Honolulu was first lighted in 1869. The first Protestant missionaries arrived at the islands in 1820, by the brig Thaddeus, which sailed from Boston in 1819.

They were well received by the islanders, who were superstitious idolaters, living under the tyranny of their chiefs and priests. Since 1820 the American churches (up to 1873) have sent nearly one hundred and fifty men and women as missionaries to these islands, and have spent a million of dollars for their evangelical civilization.

One result of the investment is the controlling influence of Americans, etc.

(Bliss's "Paradise in the Pacific.")

COTTON.

The cotton plant (genus gossypium) is an indigenous growth of nearly all the intertropical countries, there being as many as eight varieties of the plant— one (the gossypium sandwichsense) being native in the Sandwich Islands.

In India, cotton, its cultivation and uses, have been known since prehistoric times, and was introduced from there into Japan in the seventh century, and into Europe by the Mohammedans in the tenth century. In the United States it was known as far back as 1536 -the product from the latter country being now about one and one-half million tons per annum. The finer qualities-that with the longest fibre-grown in the United States, on the isles along the coast of Georgia and some of the other seaboard States, known as seaisland cotton, would naturally suggest it as one of the staples to be cultivated in the South Sea.

PRINCIPAL ISLANDS.

Hawaii, although the largest island in the group (having an area of nearly four thousand square miles), has but one harbor of any note-that of Hilo. There are many indentations along the shores that might serve as good anchoring for vessels, but the sterility of the back country has so far prevented their occupation and settlement.

Next in size is Mau, with about 603 square miles of area. There is little to be said, except that the lands are extremely productive where placed under cultivation.

On Oahu, third in size, whose area is 522 square miles, is located the principal port of entry and harbor, as well as the capital city of the kingdom, Honolulu. There is good anchorage here, with a barrier reef of coral and lava protecting it on every side.

Deep-water soundings are found on every hand before entering, while inside the average depth may be set down at about twenty feet.

MAUNA LOA.

The volcanoes of Mauna Loa and Kilauea, located on the island of Hawaii, have already received some attention in this work.

Kilauea is sometimes claimed to have the largest active volcanic crater in the world, having a circumference of over eight miles, and a depth, from the rim of the basin to the burning lava, of, one thousand feet. The elevation of the crater is 4,000 feet, while its fiery neighbor, Mauna Loa (both being located on the mountain of that name) towers into the skies 13,760

feet above the sea. In regard to the size of volcanic craters, it might be said that in the eastern part of the island of Java a crater is to be found twelve to fifteen miles in circumference; that of Kilauea does not exceed nine miles. On the eastern peninsula of the island of Maui, one of the Sandwich group, is located the summit crater of Mauna Haleakala, 10,200 feet above the sea level. Following the rim of the once fiery cauldron, the circumference is all of twenty-seven miles, while the depth from the edge to the bottom of the great pit is two thousand feet. As far as known, this is the largest volcanic crater in the world. Kilauea, Dana says:

Of

BURNING LAKE OF KILAUEA.

Kilauea is a deep pit in the sides of Mount Loa. The gentle slopes of the dome in this part scarcely vary from a plain, and the crater appears like a vast gulf excavated out of the rock-built structure. Although there is no cone, the country around is slightly raised above the general level, as if by former eruptions over the surface; but this is hardly apparent without extended and careful examination.

The traveler perceives his approach to the crater in a few small clouds of steam rising from fissures not far from his path. While gazing for a second indication, he stands unexpectedly upon the brink of the pit. A vast amphitheatre, seven miles and a half in circuit, has opened to view. Beneath a gray, rocky precipice of 650 feet, forming the bold contour, a narrow plain of hardened lava (the "black ledge") extends like a vast gallery around the whole interior. Within this gallery, below another similar precipice of 340 feet,

lies the bottom, a wide plain of bare rock more than two miles in length.

The eye naturally ranged over the whole area for something like volcanic action, as it is usually described. But all was singularly quiet. In the dark plain that forms the bottom there was little to attract attention beside the utter dreariness of the place, excepting certain spots of a blood-red color, which appeared to be in constant yet gentle agitation. Instead of beholding a sea of molten lava "rolling to and fro its fiery surge and flaming billows," flaming billows," we were surprised at the stillness of the scene. The incessant motion in the blood-red pools was like that of a cauldron in constant ebullition. The lava in each boiled with such activity as to cause a rapid play of jets over its surface. One pool, the largest of the three then in action, was afterwards ascertained by survey to measure 1,500 feet in one diameter, and 1,000 in the other; and this whole area-into which the capitol grounds at Washington might be sunk entire was boiling, as seemed from above, with nearly the mobility of water. Still all went on quietly. Not a whisper was heard from the fires below. While vapors rose in fleecy wreaths from the pools and numerous fissures, and above the large lake they collected into a broad canopy of clouds, not unlike the snowy heaps or cumuli that lie near the horizon on a clear day, though changing more rapidly their fanciful shapes. On descending afterwards to the black ledge at the verge of the lower pit, a half-smothered, gurgling sound was all that could be heard from the pools of lava. Occasionally there was a report like that of musketry, which died away and left the same murmuring sound-the stifled mutterings of a boiling fluid. Such was the appearance of Pele's pit in a day

view, at the time it was visited by the author (in November, 1840).

At night, though less quiet, the scene was one of indescribable sublimity. We were encamped on the edge of the crater, with the fires in full view. The large cauldron, in place of its bloody glare, now glowed with intense brilliancy, and the surface sparkled with shifting points of dazzling light occasioned by the jets in constant display. A row of small basins on the southeast side of the lake were also jetting out their glowing lavas. Two other pools in another part of the pit tossed up their molten rock much like the larger cauldron, and occasionally burst out with jets forty or fifty feet in height. The broad canopy of clouds above the pit, which seemed to rest on a column of wreaths and curling heaps of lighted vapor, and the amphitheatre of rocks around the lower depths, were brightly illuminated from the boiling lavas, while a lurid red tinged the distant parts of the inclosing walls, and threw into shades of darkness the many cavernous recesses. And over this scene of restless fires and fiery vapors, the heavens, by contrast, seemed unnaturally black, with only here and there a star like a dim point of light. The next night streams of lava boiled over from the lake, and formed several glowing lines diverging over the bottom of the crater. Towards morning there was a dense mist, and the whole atmosphere seemed on fire. Through the haze the lakes were barely distinguished by the spangles on the surface that were brightening and disappearing with incessant change.

ISLAND FORMATION.

Among the groups of Polynesia the Hawaiian exceeds all others in geological interest. The agency