IN TROD UC TION xxi 



of gulches and larger valleys, the lao, Waihee, Olowalu and others being conspicuous. 

 The vegetation of the west and east side of West Maui is very different. 



East Maui is formed of the great mountain Haleakala, the highest point being 

 rather more than 10,000 ft. above the sea, and on the edge of the summit caldera. 

 Owing to its altitude. East Maui differs essentially from any of the islands already 

 mentioned in the fact that here for the first time we are dealing- with a mountain, in 

 which there is an extensive area above the limits of forest growth, while the summit is 

 nearly devoid of vegetation. The bottom of the great caldera is about 7000 ft. above 

 the sea and its sides are in some parts precipices of 2000 — 3000 ft. high. It contains 

 numerous cinder craters, which are themselves five to nine hundred feet in height. 

 The northern slope of the mountain is seamed with gulches, the forest-belt on that 

 side intercepting the heavy rain-fall, while the western slope is dry and comparatively 

 little eroded. This northern forest-belt differs much in the variety of its plants in 

 different parts of its extension from west to east. In some parts during recent years 

 many trees have died from a disease of obscure origin, so that fears have arisen as to 

 the permanency of the watersheds, the water supply being of the greatest value for 

 purposes of irrigation. On the drier western side the trees have been much destroyed 

 by cattle, but on the windward side the growth of forest is extensive and in parts forms 

 a very dense belt. Owing to its elevation, the summit of Haleakala is sometimes 

 capped with snow in the course of the winter months. 



Hawaii, Plate VIII, is by far the largest of the islands, its area being 4015 square 

 miles, or much more than that of all the others together. Its northern extremity is 

 30 miles distant from Maui. It is of subtriangular outline and has been formed from 

 five volcanic centres. Mauna Loa (13,650 ft.) and Kilauea (4040 ft.) are still active 

 volcanoes, occupying with their slopes the south portion of the island, Kilauea lying 

 east of the large mountain ; Hualalai (8269 ft.), near the middle of the west side of 

 the island, was last in eruption in 1801. Mauna Kea (13,825 ft.) is the most lofty 

 of Hawaiian mountains, and is regularly snow-capped during the winter months. In 

 the Hilo district its slopes bear a wide and dense forest-belt, though this has been 

 lessened on the lower side by the cultivation of sugar-cane and other causes. North 

 of this, in the Hamakua district, the belt of forest is much thinner, and some years 

 since was considerably ravaged by fire. However, although much has been destroyed 

 by cattle or cultivation, it may be said that all the districts, into which Hawaii is 

 divided, still have extensive forest areas. In the variety of their vegetation these 

 forests differ much according to locality, nor is an older part of the island always 

 everywhere more rich than a younger one. Thus some parts of the older Mauna Kea 

 are comparatively uniform in their vegetation, some parts of Mauna Loa well varied ; 

 but it is possible that the richest localities of Kea are richer than those of Loa, and 

 the poorest of Loa poorer than the same of Kea. 



In the northern corner of the island lie the Kohala mountains, much the oldest 



