THE Atlantic has hardly any islands at all. The Pacific has by far too many.The Caroline Islands, the Marshall Islands and the Hawaiian Islands lie north of the equator.All the others lie south of the equator.They usually make their appearance in groups.Easter Island, the place where we have found those mysterious gigantic stone statues, is an exception.It lies by itself, but it is much nearer to South America than to Australia.

The Pacific Islands can be divided into three distinct groups. There are the islands which are undoubtedly the tenants of the vast Australian continent of prehistoric geological times.New Caledonia, the French penal settlement, is an example of this sort of island.Then there are others like the Fiji Islands, Samoa the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands and the Marquesas, which are of distinct volcanic origin.Finally there are the coral islands like the New Hebrides.

Of all these thousands of islands(many of the coral islands are only a few feet above water)the most important ones are the Hawaiian Islands, where Captain Cook was murdered by the natives on his way home in the year 1779. In the year 1810 they became the center of a large South Sea Empire which continued to exist until 1893,when they were annexed by the United States.Outside of their great fertility they are of tremendous importance as half-way stations between America and Asia.

They are a bit shaky. Kilauea, a volcano with the unusual height of 4400 feet, continues to be active.The volcano on Maul, another island of the group, has the biggest crater of the world.But the marvellous climate easily makes up for an occasional worried glance at the smoke plumes of these old but none too trustworthy friends.Honolulu on the island of Oahu is the capital.

The most important city of the Fiji Islands is Suva, a port of call for all steamers from America to Australia and New Zealand.

The capital of Samoa is Apia.

Another island of which you sometimes hear is Guam, half-way between Japan and New Guinea and an important American cable station.

Then there is Tahiti, a French possession among the Society Islands, where the South Sea movie stories are supposed to come from.

Finally there are dozens and dozens of other islands belonging to the three general groups of Melanesia and Micronesia and Polynesia. They seem to form regular barriers across the Pacific, running in three parallel lines from north-west to south-east and making navigation in the Pacific something very different from that in the Atlantic where Rockall is the only danger spot between Ireland and the American coast.

It is said that these islands offer a most agreeable home to all those who find our modern machine-made civilization too complicated for their simple tastes and who prefer peace and quiet and agreeable companions to noise and hurry and the angry looks of jealous competitors. I suppose they are more restful than, let us say, the corner of Broadway and Forty-Second Street.But they are so dreadfully far away—and do they really grow an herb that will allow the average man to escape from himself?