sacred morai. The sailors were given permission to remove the fence because of their urgent need of wood, but they unwittingly removed images as well. Skepticism had set in after their first departure.*

HAWAIIANS LONG WORSHIPED THEIR
VICTIM'S BONES

On the night of February 13, 1779, a cutter was stolen. Cook went ashore to seize the king and hold him as a hostage until the boat should be returned. The king was willing enough to come, but his people objected, and they became so menacing that Cook and the marines with him retreated.

Early the next morning as they neared the water Cook turned to signal the boat to pull in for his party. One native struck him over the head and, as he fell forward, another stabbed him in the back.

A few bones of Cook's body were returned after the natives had stripped it of the flesh, and on February 21, according to a brief entry in the ship's journal, "At sunset the Resolution fired ten minute guns, with the colours half staff up, when the remains of our late Commander were committed to the deep." Missionaries, on later visits to Hawaii, learned that the breastbone and ribs long were preserved by the islanders as objects of veneration. The two ships returned to the Bering Sea, where Captain Clerke died, and Captain Gore, on the Resolution, succeeded to the leadership of the expedition, while Captain King took command of the Discovery.

When the vessels reached Macao and common seamen sold furs they had procured from Alaskan Eskimos for the equivalent of more than $100 each, it was borne home upon the survivors that, although their search for a northeast passage had failed, they had found a source of riches that rivaled the wealth of the Indies.

*See. also, "The Hawaiian Islands," by Gilbert Grosvenor, LL. D., in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE for February, 1924.

That esteem for Cook had already spread over the civilized world was attested by the orders of the Court of Versailles, at Franklin's instigation, to treat his expedition as the ships of a neutral. When the battered vessels returned without their great commander, honors were paid to his name in England, and sorrow was expressed by men of learning all over Europe.

The fate of Cook's family was as tragic as that of its head. Three of his six children died in their infancy; a fourth died in his teens; the other two met their death at sea.

In 1835, a white-haired old lady was laid to rest in a vault at the church of St. Andrew the Great, at Cambridge. A few aged friends mourned the passing, in her ninety-fourth year, of the widow of Captain James Cook.

FEW EXPLORERS HAVE EQUALED COOK'S
GIFTS TO GEOGRAPHY

Few explorers have so widened the range of geographic knowledge as did Captain Cook. He girdled the Southern Hemisphere from Tasmania and New Zealand around Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope.

He spanned the great unknown Pacific triangle that, in the nomenclature of today, has its apex at Nome, while one leg rests at Melbourne and the other at Easter Island. He plunged again and again into this vast triangle, discovering or exploring the New Hebrides, the Society group. the idyllic Marquesas, the Tongas, New Caledonia, and scores of others.

In the wake of his explorations along the sides of this triangle to-day is the Territory of Hawaii, on one side, and Seattle, Vancouver, and Victoria on the other.

Time has added luster to Cook's name. England has been called Shakespeare's Island; in another sense it is Cook's, for few men have so typified the peculiar genius of their race as has this navigator, who, by rigorous, though peaceful, pursuit of exploration and scientific study, won for his country a great colonial domain.

HENRY WHITE, Vice-President

WILLIAM J. SHOWALTER Assistant Editor

CHARLES J. BELL

FRANKLIN L. FISHER Chief of Illustrations Division

All re

TO carry out the purposes for which it was founded thirty-nine years ago, the National Geographic Society publishes this Magazine. ceipts are invested in the Magazine itself or expended directly to promote geographic knowledge. ARTICLES and photographs are desired. For material which the Magazine can use, generous remuneration is made. Contributions should be accompanied by an addressed return envelope and postage.

IMMEDIATELY after the terrific eruption of the world's largest crater, Mt. Katmai, in Alaska, a National Geographic Society expedition was sent to make observations of this remarkable phenom

enon.

Four expeditions have followed and the extraordinary scientific data resulting given to the world. In this vicinity an eighth wonder of the world was discovered and explored-"The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes," a vast area of steaming, spouting fissures. As a result of The Society's discoveries this area has been created a National Monument by proc lamation of the President of the United States.

AT an expense of over $50,000 The Society sent a notable series of expeditions into Peru to investigate the traces of the Inca race. Their

discoveries form a large share of our knowledge of a civilization waning when Pizarro first set foot in Peru. THE Society also had the honor of subscribing a substantial sum to the expedition of Admiral Peary, who discovered the North Pole. NOT long ago The Society granted $25.000, and in addition $75.000 was given by individual members to the Government when the congressional appropriation for the purpose was insufficient, and the finest of the giant sequoia trees of California were thereby saved for the American people. THE Society is conducting extensive explorations and excavations in northwestern New Mexico, which was one of the most densely populated areas in North America before Columbus came, a region where prehistoric peoples lived in vast communal dwellings and whose customs, ceremonies, and name have been engulfed in an oblivion.

TO further the important study of solar radiation in relation to long-range weather forecasting. The Society has appropriated $60.000 to enable Dr. Charles G. Abbot, of the Smithsonian Insti tution, to establish a station for four years on Mt. Brukkaros, in Southwest Africa.