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cairn, is 1,100 miles, and the South American
coast is 2,100 miles to the eastward.
The island is irregularly triangular in shape.
Its greatest length from NE. to SW. is 13 miles;
its greatest width from North Cape to Cape
Roe-Hoe, in a direction from NNW. to SSE., is 7
miles. The circumference, measuring from headland
to headland, is about 34 miles, and the area of
the island is 31 square miles.
The surface is diversified mountain and plain, the
former usually rising abruptly from the latter,
and generally at a distance from each other, so
that, with one or two exceptions, it can hardly be
said that there are valleys, strictly speaking.
The mountains - a goodly number in proportion to the
area of the island - are mostly cone shaped, and not
of very great elevation, the tallest, near Cape
North, being but 1,767 feet high. The most
extensive plain is at the base of Rana Roraka,
extending thence in a westerly direction for
several miles, and it is believed that in ancient
times a large town existed on this site, in whose
vicinity all the monoliths were carved.
The coast
line on the southern and western sides, except at
the extreme southwest end where Rana Kao looms up,
is generally low, but extremely rocky. The
northwestern, northern, northeastern, and eastern
coasts are a succession of black, frowning,
precipitous, basalt cliffs, worn into
innumerable caves by the erosion of the sea,
and with huge attached bowlders scattered at the
base, over and against which the waves dash with
resistless fury, forming a veritable
iron-bound coast. Many of the caves thus formed
have been inhabited and have also been used as
burial places; and the remains of human beings,
with implements interred with them or secreted by
the modern natives, sometimes reward the diligent
searcher.
There are but two or three points around
the entire coast line at which a sandy beach may
be met with. One of these, small in extent, is
on the south side, near Mr. Salmon's residence
at Vaihu, in a picturesque little bay, used as a
bathing ground and boat landing.
Another, and much
the larger, forms the beach of Anakana Bay on the
north side of the island, the legendary landing
place of Hotu Metua, and by far the best and safest
boat harbor around the coast.
The soil is for the
most part decomposed of disintegrated lava,
nowhere of any great depth, but exceedingly
fertile and in places, as for example, where
excavations were made inside of cairns, it was
found of the fineness, color and richness of
garden mold.
Except where a few clearings have
been made, nearly the entire surface of the island
is covered in astonishing profusion with fragments
of lava, varying in size from that of a pebble to
that of a huge bowlder. They are nearly black in
color, hard, sharp, angular, weatherworn; and it is
these, in places covering the ground, which render
pedestrianism so difficult and laborious.
Until supplied with wood from wrecked lumber
vessels the modern
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