THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 495 



where, that the customary drink of Japanese women is simple 

 hot water. I imagined that the Japanese were the only race 

 that drink hot water ; but I have lately been told, to my sur- 

 prise, that it is the customary beverage of some old women in 

 England. 



The ship left Japan on June 16th for Honolulu. Notwith- 

 standing all that has been written on Japan, the country and its 

 people still remain almost as great a source of interest and field 

 for investigation as does European civilization to the educated 

 Japanese themselves. The English and German Asiatic Societies 

 at Japan, showing as they do, a most remarkable activity, and 

 constantly producing papers of the greatest value and interest 

 in all branches of inquiry, have still probably the most fasci- 

 nating field of research in the world before them. 



The Sandwich Islands, July 21th to August 19th, lS^S. — The 

 ship reached Honolulu on July 27th, after an unsuccessful dredg- 

 ing between the Islands of Oahu (pronounced with stress on the 

 penultimate), and Molokai. These islands of the Hawaian 

 group are most remarkable for the extremely barren aspect 

 which they present as viewed from seawards. In this respect 

 they differ from all other Pacific Islands which were visited 

 during the Voyage of the " Challenger " ; no trees or shrubs 

 form a feature in the view, but the hill slopes are covered with 

 a scanty clothing of grass and low herbage, which in the 

 summer season is yellow and parched. 



Only one scanty grove of Cocoanut-trees is to be seen on the 

 shore of Oahu Island, to the east of the town of Honolulu, whilst 

 westwards the barren plains and distant bare hills recalled 

 almost St. Vincent, Cape Verde Islands, in their sterility. Here 

 are no thick belts of Cocoanut-trees fringing the shores as at 

 Tonga, with littoral vegetation overhanging the very surf ; no 

 dense forests clothing the mountains from the summits to the 

 shore as at Fiji, or the Admiralty Islands. 



There is little more show of vegetation in the general ap- 

 pearance of the islands, as seen from seawards, than is to be seen 

 on the bleak Marion Island in the Southern Ocean. 



The harbour of Honolulu is entered by a narrow channel in 

 a not very extensive fringing reef. The town lies on an almost 



