150 Couthouy on Coral Formations 



a remarkable beach, more than a mile in length, consisting of 

 a mixture of loose corals, shells and sand, deposited in very 

 regular curved strata. From this and all the other old beach- 

 es a sandy plain, with a thin coating of soil extends to the 

 present coast. 



That section of the coast at Kauai, designated by the na- 

 tives as Na Pali, or " the Precipices," which from Hamakoa 

 on the north, to Lapa on the west, extends about twelve 

 miles in an unbroken, inaccessible wall of sub-columnar lava, 

 from eighteen hundred to twenty five hundred feet high, exhib- 

 its continuous traces of exposure to the action of the waves, 

 several feet above the line of cavities now being worn by the 

 surf. 



At Molokai, an island a few miles north-west of Maui, Mr. 

 B. Munn, teacher for the Mission, assured me that he had 

 seen masses of coral apparently in their original position, 

 imbedded in calcareous rocks, one hundred and even one 

 hundred and fifty feet above sea level. I suspect, however, 

 that here is some error, either of calculation or observation, 

 having seen nothing on any of the other islands to warrant 

 the belief in such an elevation as this would indicate. Still 

 from the testimony of all the missionaries, there can be no 

 question of the fact that there are really in Molokai raised 

 coral beaches of height at least equal to those of Oahu and 

 Kauai. 



By the statements of several persons who have long been 

 residents on Oahu, the elevation there is at present going for- 

 ward at a very perceptible rate. Henry A. Peirce, Esq., an 

 American merchant who has dwelt at Honolulu for upwards 

 of sixteen years, and whose high intelligence and habits of 

 close observation entitle his opinion on this point to much re- 

 spect, has informed me that large portions of the reef on both 

 sides of the harbor, which at his first arrival were never un- 

 covered by the sea, have since then risen so much as to be 

 now bare every tide at low water ; other parts which were 

 within his knowledge exposed only at that stage, are now na- 

 ked an hour before it, and the sea has in the same time rece- 



