, however, is less
striking than the immense size of the blocks composing them. Some of the stones,
of an oblong shape, are from ten to fifteen feet in length, and five or six feet
thick. Their sides are quite smooth, but though square, and of pretty regular
formation, they bear no mark of the chisel. They are laid together without
cement, and here and there show gaps between. The topmost terrace and the lower
one are somewhat peculiar in their construction. They have both a quadrangular
depression in the centre, leaving the rest of the terrace elevated several feet
above it. In the intervals of the stones immense trees have taken root, and
their broad boughs stretching far over, and interlacing together, support a
canopy almost impenetrable to the sun. Overgrowing the greater part of them, and
climbing from one to another, is a wilderness of vines, in whose sinewy embrace
many of the stones lie half hidden, while in some places a thick growth of
bushes entirely covers them. There is a wild pathway which obliquely crosses two
of these terraces; and so profound is the shade, so dense the vegetation, that a
stranger to the place might pass along it without being aware of their
existence.
    These structures bear every indication of a very high antiquity, and
Kory-Kory, who was my authority in all matters of scientific research, gave me
to understand that they were coeval with the creation of the world; that the
great gods themselves were the builders; and that they would endure until time
shall be no more. Kory-Kory's prompt explanation, and his attributing the work
to a divine origin, at once convinced me that neither he nor the rest of his
countrymen knew anything about them.
    As I gazed upon this monument, doubtless the work of an extinct and
forgotten race, thus buried in the green nook of an island at the ends of the
earth, the existence of which was yesterday unknown, a stronger feeling of awe
came over me than if I had stood musing at the mighty base of the Pyramid of
Cheops. There are no inscriptions, no sculpture, no clue, by which to conjecture
its history: nothing but the dumb stones. How many generations of those majestic
trees which overshadowed them have grown and flourished and decayed since first
they were erected!
    These remains naturally suggest many interesting reflections. They establish
the great age of the island, an opinion which the builders of theories
concerning the creation of the various groups in the South Seas are not always
inclined to admit. For my own part, I think it just as probable
