OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 375 



where else on the islands, and the natives have no difficulty in raising pines, bananas, and 

 other fruits. The a-a is often so rough that horses unshod cannot stand on it out of the 

 beaten road, without a carpet of pandanus leaves or sea-weed. 



At Nanawalie the flow of 1S40 crosses the road in a branching stream a mile wide, and 

 rough with broken caves, clinkers, and a-a. The once high sand-hills of Nanawalie. thrown 

 up where the lava entered the sea, have lost more than half their original height, worn 

 away by the waves which encounter little resistance in the loosely agglomerated black sand 

 of which the hills are composed. The a-a contains a large proportion of olivine, and large 

 granules measuring a third of an inch in diameter are found on the shore. The road is six 

 feet wide, built over the rough lava and covered with the black sand which forms a good bed, 

 and is precisely similar to the sand found in layers near Honolulu and elsewhere on the 

 islands. 1 It is an interesting fact that trees which were encircled by the lava of this flow 

 are still alive, the stream having passed within thirty feet of them on either side. This 

 would indicate an absence of carburetted or sulphuretted hydrogen, or other gases fatal to 

 vegetable life. 



The slopes of Kilauea are quite regular in this district, and many eruptions have flowed 

 down this way. At least twenty may be counted in thirty miles. Tradition declares that 

 formerly Puna was a fertile region surpassing in the productiveness of its soil any district 

 of Hawaii, and that during the absence of the chief of the district, Pele, the goddess of 

 the volcano, left her abode in Kilauea to pay him a visit. From the appearance of the 

 streams of lava it is not impossible that many of them were synchronous, and that the 

 larger portion of Puna was overwhelmed by the same eruption of Kilauea. None of the 

 lavas of Mauna Loa have ever flowed this way. 



Leaving Piina the traveller also leaves the barren pahoehoe and the rough a-a, and enters 

 the beautiful and fertile Hilo. On the very borders he crosses the first stream of water he 

 has seen since leaving Waiohinu. Fields of high velvety grass, the deep, dark foliage of the 

 ohia-ai (Eugenia Malaccensis), the green and wooded slopes on the left and the broad ocean 

 on the right, delight the eye, while before him the majestic, and it may be, snow-capped 

 domes of Kea and Loa, every ridge, — almost every rock, — visible through the clear air ; 

 the little white village of Hilo half buried in mango-trees and bananas ; — all complete a 

 view seldom equalled, which wholly effaces the weary thoughts of a hundred and fifty miles 

 over roads which wear out the horses' feet and the riders' patience. 



The people of Hilo claim that their village is the most beautiful on the Hawaiian Islands, 

 and few will dispute them. Almost daily showers cool the air, and refresh the rapidly spring- 

 ing vegetation, while the sea and mountain breezes remove all dampness, 2 and prevent the 

 lassitude so commonly attendant upon a moist tropical climate. 



The harbor of Waiake"a is, after that of Honolulu, the best on the islands. The town is 

 built on the slopes of Mauna Loa, which rise regularly with an average slope of 8°-10° 

 to the summit. The soil is deep and loamy, and being well watered is exceedingly pro- 

 ductive. Directly back of the town are three cones in line from the mountain towards the 

 sea, about five hundred feet high and containing deep craters, one of which is filled with 

 bambus. 



1 Similar black gravel is found among the tufa-cones near was able to dry readily papers used in the preparation of 

 Victoria in Australia. See Transactions of the Royal Society botanical specimens, and the latter did not mould at all when 

 of Victoria, vol. vii., p. 153. exposed to the air in the open verandah. 



2 During a rain which continued several days, the writer 



