496 A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER." 



flat expanse immediately adjoining the shore, and is not very 

 conspicuous from the distance. It is composed of streets of very 

 various widths, laid out at right angles to one another, lined on 

 either side by very irregular rows of houses of all kinds, mostly 

 wooden shanties, the greater part of them occupied as general 

 stores. 



There is a large shop of Chinese and Japanese curiosities, 

 and two photographers' shops, where corals, imported mostly from 

 the Marquesas, and spurious imitations of native implements 

 manufactured for sale, are disposed of, at exorbitant prices to pas- 

 sengers bv the mail steamers. I was told that a Chinaman is 

 even employed to manufacture facsimiles of the stone gods of 

 the ancient Hawaians for sale as genuine curiosities ; the forged 

 deities being represented as having been dug up in taro-fields. 



The business streets are very hot and dusty, but around the 

 hotel and villa dwelling-houses on the east side of the town are 

 pretty gardens, filled with the usual imported tropical garden 

 plants, shrubs, and trees, which are maintained alive only by 

 constant irrigation ; hoses from the town supply-pipes being kept 

 playing on them day and night. Twenty years ago, where these 

 gardens now are, there was not a single tree, and now the gardens 

 form only a small oasis in a dry parched desert, which extends 

 along the coast east and west, and which is soon reached on 

 leaving the town in either of these directions. 



On this tract, the bare volcanic rock shows out everywhere, 

 and its only conspicuous vegetation is a Prickly Pear (Opuntia), 

 introduced from America, which has spread far on either side 

 from the town and multiplied exceedingly, so as in places to form 

 a dense impassable growth, and constitute a most conspicuous 

 feature in the landscape. These barren parts of Oahu reminded 

 me somewhat of the rocky 'tracts of Teneriffe with their growth 

 of Euphorbia canariensis. 



The Guava, a second introduced American plant, has spread 

 in all directions, in places forming dense thickets from which it 

 is difficult to drive out the half-wild cattle. The whole town 

 of Honolulu has a thoroughly American aspect. Americans are 

 supplanting the rapidly decreasing native population ; American 

 plants are, as has been said, covering the ground, and American 



