. Island life; or, the phenomena and causes of insular faunas and floras, including a revision and attempted solution of the problem of geological climates. eventy miles acrossand having an area of 3,800 square miles—being somewhatlarger than all the other islands together. A better conceptionof this large island will be formed by comparing it with Devon-shire, with which it closely agrees both in size and shape, thoughits enormous volcanic mountains rise to nearly 14,000 feet of the smaller islands are each about the size of Hertford-shire or Bedfordshire, and the whole group stret
. Island life; or, the phenomena and causes of insular faunas and floras, including a revision and attempted solution of the problem of geological climates. eventy miles acrossand having an area of 3,800 square miles—being somewhatlarger than all the other islands together. A better conceptionof this large island will be formed by comparing it with Devon-shire, with which it closely agrees both in size and shape, thoughits enormous volcanic mountains rise to nearly 14,000 feet of the smaller islands are each about the size of Hertford-shire or Bedfordshire, and the whole group stretches from north-west to south-east for a distance of about 350 miles. Though sa CHAP. XV THE SAXOWICII ISLANDS. 290 extensive, the entire archipelago is volcanic, and the largest islandis rendered sterile and comparatively luiiiiluibitable by its threeactive volcanoes and their widespread deposits of lava. The ocean depths by which these islands are separated fnnnthe nearest continents are enormous. North, east, and south,soundings have been obtained a little over or under three thinisandfathoms, and these profound deeps extend over a large part of. MAP OF THE SANDWICH 19LAND? The tint shows where the sea is less than 1,000 fathuins show the depth in fathoms. the North Pacific. We may be quite sure, therefore, that theSandwich Islands have, during their wdiole existence, been ascompletely severed from the great continents as they are now ;but on the west and south there is a possibility of more exten-sive islands having existed, serving as stepping-stones to theisland groups of the Mid-Pacific. This is indicated by a fewwidely-scattered coral islets, ar(»und which extend considerable 300 ISLAND LIFE. [part II. areas of less depth, varying from two hundred to a thousandfathoms, and which may therefore indicate the sites of submergedishmds of considerable extent. When we consider that eastof New Zealand and New Caledonia, all the larger and loftierisla
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