OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 379 



road shows several of its terminal cones to great advantage, and they much resemble the 

 lateral cones of Hualalai. 



The district of Waimea is generally destitute of water, and the vegetation depends wholly 

 on the dews and rain. Nevertheless as a grazing land, Waimea is perhaps unequalled on 

 the islands, although of late years the introduction of several foreign plants, of which the 

 indigo and verbena are the most troublesome, has much diminished the grass. From its 

 considerable elevation, the climate is cool and salubrious, and is much recommended as a 

 sanitarium. Frosts sometimes occur, and the fruits and vegetables of temperate climes 

 thrive well. Common American potatoes are raised here in large quantities, and in the 

 early days of Califbrnian immigration were exported to the coast. 



Many lateral cones have been thrown up on the slopes of Mauna Kea near Waimea; and 

 Mauna Kohala has also formed cones of a red ochreous earth covered with grass, and at 

 first resembling tufa-cones, but they seem to be simply decomposed lava or scorias, as they 

 do not exhibit the stratification of tufa-cones : those of Kea are mostly scoriaceous and 

 much furrowed, while these are not at all furrowed, owing to an early growth of grass. 

 Some of them have shallow craters at the top, while others have no depression, but the 

 soil is muddy or soft on the summit. Many large caves are found in the lava-streams 

 which have flowed this way, and some of them, as on the other islands, have been used as 

 sepulchres. 1 



The road from Waimea to Kohala, the north-west district of Hawaii, crosses the western 

 spur of Mauna Kohala at an elevation of about eighteen hundred feet, and traverses a 

 region of cones, some of them quite perfect and five hundred feet high, while others are 

 broken down. Lava streams have issued from some and flowed down to the coast, a distance 

 of two or three miles. These cones much resemble the extinct craters of Auvertme in 

 France. 2 Kohala is a fertile region, owing to the lengthened period during which its moun- 

 tain has been in repose. The ridges are broader and smoother, covered with grass or cane- 

 fields, and not rocky. The shore also becomes lower, and affords several good landing-places. 

 Small streams are frequent, although the land cannot be considered well watered through 

 all the district. Mauna Kohala has seldom been ascended, as its summit, although not high, 

 is swampy like Waialeale on Kauai, and full of dangerous bog-holes. Its name is said to 

 have been taken from Kohala (a whale), and it is not a single dome like the other mountains 

 of Hawaii, but an elongated ridge like Konahuaniii on (Mhu. It is well wooded, and 

 several trees grow there that are not found elsewhere on the islands, and some that grow 

 only on Kauai. It is quite remarkable that Waialeale, Kaala, and Kohala should be so 

 swampy on their summits, while at their base, and on their slopes, the soil is often dry and 

 barren. The three mountains are alike in other respects, in the absence of a single terminal 

 crater, and terminal cones, and in the presence of crateriform marshes, and circular pools. 

 They are probably all of the same age, as they have suffered an equal denudation, allowing 

 for the different exposure to the trade-winds, and consequently to rain. 



From Waimea to Kawaihae the ground is rocky, and dry. Pahoehoe, and broken beds of 

 lava destitute of vegetation, cover many square miles ; and the same is true of most of the 



1 The walls of these sepulchral caves are quite porous, and which had been dropped near the entrance, the bearers having 



the air within is very dry, converting the bodies into dry mum- probably been frightened away, as the two poles between which 



mies without further decomposition. A party which recently the body was slung were still attached, 



visited one of these caves found a body perfectly preserved, a See Scrope's Extinct Volcanos of Central France 



