The earth and its inhabitants The earth and its inhabitants .. earthitsinhabita00recl Year: 1890 470 AUSTRALASIA. Samoa, whicli is regularly disposed in a long chaiu, is entirely volcanic, present- ing nothing but basalt rocks, either still compact or reduced to tuffas and scoriae, and differing greatly in age. Some are completely weathered on the surface, while others appear to have little changed since the time when the lava streams overflowed from their fiery furnaces. Tutuila, easternmost of the three large islands, has no longer a central crater, all the cones having been obliterated by
The earth and its inhabitants The earth and its inhabitants .. earthitsinhabita00recl Year: 1890 470 AUSTRALASIA. Samoa, whicli is regularly disposed in a long chaiu, is entirely volcanic, present- ing nothing but basalt rocks, either still compact or reduced to tuffas and scoriae, and differing greatly in age. Some are completely weathered on the surface, while others appear to have little changed since the time when the lava streams overflowed from their fiery furnaces. Tutuila, easternmost of the three large islands, has no longer a central crater, all the cones having been obliterated by weathering, while profound ravines have been opened in the flanks of the moun- tains, whose original outlines can no longer be recognised. TJpolu, farther west, presents a somewhat similar aspect, though the volcanoes have preserved their regular slopes, scoriae, and craters in some districts. Lastly, the large island of Savaii, in the extreme west, forms a single igneous rig'. •iOo.—Samoa. Scale 1 : 3, 0 to 1,000 Fathoms. Depths. 1,000 to 2,000 Fathoms. 2,000 Fathoms and upwards. 60 Miles. mass, an Etna with central crater, with gently inclined slopes dotted over with, numerous parasitic cones. A continuous forest clothes the central summit and the zone of secondary crests, while every crater is embowered in verdure. Of all the Samoan islands Savaii has the narrowest fringe of coral reefs, which Dana attributes to the shorter period that has elapsed since the extinction of its vol- canoes. The eastern islets also present the same coralline formation, relatively larger in proportion to the longer time they have been quiescent. Rose, last link of the chain, is probably an atoll built up by the polyps on the summit of an igneous crest. Even on the reefs are seen here and there fragments of basalt, perhaps deposited by the floating trunks of trees, or thrown out by passing boats as useless ballast.
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