OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 371 



the mountain, and although no streams are found on the surface, the soil is moist and in 

 many places even swampy from the frequent rains. Where the forests have been cleared 

 away, oranges grow well, and the Kona coffee is quite equal to the Mocha or Wynaad. The 

 soil is full of small fragments of the spongy lava called a-a, which keeps it loose, and at the 

 same time retains moisture in its pores. The red clayey earth, so common on northern Oahu, 

 is rare here, as the vegetation has converted the red and brown iron oxides into organic 

 salts. The climate of Kona is one of the finest in the world ; the thermometer ranges 

 annually from 60° -80° Fahr. ; the nights are always cool with the mountain breezes, while 

 the fresh sea-breeze during the day tempers the heat of a tropical sun, and while cooling 

 the atmosphere for man, yet permits the luxuriant growth of bread-fruit and pines side by 

 side with Indian-corn and apples. 



Descending to the coast on the southern side of the bay, the steep, winding path leads 

 under bread-fruit and kukui trees, while the pandanus, and caricas {Papaya vulgaris), covered 

 with yams and a beautiful convolvulus, clothe the slopes. On the shore, all is changed. A 

 bare sand-beach, and black lava-rocks take the place of the luxuriant vegetation of the cliffs 

 above, and only the cocoa-nut trees seem to flourish. Two miles to the south is a recent lava- 

 stream a mile broad, which has passed through a grove of these palms, and the impressions 

 of the fallen stems are stamped in the smooth lavas with wonderful clearness, the depth of 

 the cast being often more than a third of the diameter of the stem ; and it was easy to distin- 

 guish the casts of several fan-palms among the cocoa-nuts. The trees generally fell towards 

 the advancing stream, sometimes in the opposite direction, and always left a deep round 

 hole to mark their former position. By measuring the depth of these holes, the depth of 

 the stream at this place was found to be between three and four feet, which would make its 

 approximate bulk, from its source some thirty miles distant, nearly four hundred million 

 cubic yards of rock ! The surface of this, as of all other Hawaiian streams, presents three 

 aspects : the pahoehoe or velvety lava, which is folded and twisted, in the manner of a viscid 

 fluid, and may be compared to the homely illustration of a thick coat of cream drawn to- 

 wards one edge of the milk-pan ; the clinkers, or scoriaceous lava, rough and covered with 

 fragments ; and the a-a or spongy lava, a form of which no description can convey an idea 

 of the horrible roughness and hardness. The pahoehoe is the most common form, and occurs 

 when the flow passes over rocks or dry earth at a gentle slope, although the inclination may 

 be more than 50° without the formation of scoriae if the ground be tolerably even and the 

 current unimpeded. The scoriaceous lava or clinker fields are found wherever the stream 

 passes through woods, wherever its course is impeded by obstacles or inequalities in the 

 ground, or where the heat of the melted rock causes the explosion of caverns in the former 

 flows over which it passes. The a-a is the most puzzling to one who has never seen the 

 actual process of formation, but it seems to occur when the lava meets with an impediment, 

 which gives way just as the lava is granulated, rolling the spongy mass over, and building 

 up huge piles from which the still liquid lava drains away. 



The shore where this flow reached the sea exhibits no signs of a violent encounter of fire 

 with water, but the lava has run into the sea with scarcely a break and may be seen beneath 

 the water for several rods where it projects above the white coral sands wdiich cover the 

 larger portion. 



Beyond this the shore is wholly black lava-rock, which often rises in cliffs from fifty to a 

 hundred feet high, rough and jagged, full of rents and caverns, through which the sea rushes 



