166 BULLETIN OF THE 



various ancient flows of lava which have come down the slopes of Hua- 

 lalai and of Mauna Loa ; while to the eastward of Kawaihae are seen the 

 older flows of Mauna Kea and the deeply furrowed canons extending 

 from the shore nearly to the summits of the Kohala mountains. An 

 interesting patch of elevated coral is also found on the edge of the 

 sunken plain of Kalapana, similar to the restricted patches now growing 

 on some points of Hawaii. 



The coral reefs of Maui see (Plate III.) are found on the long beach of 

 the windward side of the island, on Maalaea Bay, and along the lee side 

 of Western Maui from Maalaea Bay to a short distance north of Lahaina. 

 The evidence I have been able to collect on the coral plain between 

 Maalaea Bay and Kahului indicates that Eastern and Western Maui 

 have been united by a coral reef, which flourished in the shallow passage 

 once existing between these two parts of Maui. The great coral plain 

 lying at the foot of Western Maui, and extending to meet the slopes of 

 Haleakala on the opposite side, is only the surface of the old coral reefs 

 which once flourished there. The plain which divides the two parts of 

 Maui is in some places scarcely above the level of the sea ; it abuts some- 

 what abruptly on the steep slopes of West Maui, while it passes imper- 

 ceptibly into the slopes of East Maui at Haleakala. 



The corals mentioned by the Eev. Mr. Andrews, as found at elevations 

 of from five hundred to eight hundred feet even on the eastern slopes of 

 West Maui, are, as I have satisfied myself, all ^olian formations such as 

 I have described. 



The large reservoir for the Hawaiian Commercial Company, below 

 Wailuku, from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and seventy- 

 five feet above the level of the sea, is built in natural depressions left 

 between the sand dunes which have been formed in former times on the 

 old beaches extending all the way across to Maalaea Bay from Kahului 

 Bay. The highest of these sand dunes mast be from two hundred to 

 two hundred and fifty feet above the level of the sea, and they have 

 become solidified into sandstones by the action of the rain. Coral sand 

 dunes can now be seen travelling across the road leading from Spreck- 

 elsville to Wailuku, some of which ai'e from twenty-five to seventy feet 

 high. But a great many have become fixed at a distance from the 

 beach from which they originated, having become overgrown by a species 

 of Bermuda grass. 



Brigham says that on the windward shore of Maui ^ the coral sand is 

 piled up in ridges nearly one hundred feet above the sea, shifting with 

 1 Mem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. I. p 367. 



