OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



349 



A small spur of the wall exhibited the appearance repre- 

 sented in the margin. Three layers of gray cellular basalt 

 were capped by the soil formed by the decomposed scoriaa of 

 the bed above, and formed terraces which were covered with 

 grass and convolvulus vines forming a curtain over the dark 

 rock beneath. The prisms were very irregular, none having 

 parallel sides. Near this terrace, one of the streams of pris- 

 matic lava had passed over a rounded mass of lava resembling 

 blue clay, fissured as in the figure. 



The Waimea River is similar to the Hanapepe, but larger, and Fi s- 2 - cuff in Hanapepe' vaiiey. 

 its valley is neither so deep nor so picturesque, but it is nevertheless an oasis in the barren red 

 plain of this part of Kauai, and its green kalo-ponds and banana 

 plantations furnish the principal food of the inhabitants of the 

 village of Waimea, which is situated on the dry plain at the river 

 mouth. Canoes pass up the river several miles, and at its mouth 

 it is too deep for fording. It rises on the uplands of Napali, but 

 receives some tributaries from Waialeale. 



Beyond Waimea the mountain region of Napali approaches the 

 shore, leaving a narrow strip of land usually less than a mile wide, 

 without permanent surface stream, but abounding in springs along 

 the shore near the sea level, which supply large kalo-ponds, and 

 water fields of sugar-cane, cocoanuts and bananas, forming a green 

 belt between the ocean and the dry and rocky slopes of the Vaiiey 

 mountains. Anywhere over this land water may be obtained by ,"■ "■ P rismatic basalt ; 6 . ». °'>» stone 



^ * " with concentric coating much fractured; c. 



sinking wells eight to fifteen feet deep, and large tanks are dug *>im amorphous nucleus. 

 to water the herds pastured on the scanty beach grass. 



Waimea is the usual place to ascend the mountain. The table-land to the west is wet, 

 and during the rainy season dangerous without guides. Since the introduction of horses, 

 the path across Napali has been quite forsaken, and few old natives know the way. Several 

 caves occur near the centre of the plain a little west of the pathway. Dr. Charles Pickering, 

 in crossing the island in October 1840, passed along the course of the Waimea River some 

 miles through an exceedingly interesting botanical region, but on reaching the table-land 

 found it very difficult to pass, owing to the marshes and quagmires which abound over a tract 

 twenty miles square. This was in a favorable season. Waialeale has been seldom ascended, 

 although the ascent is possible from Hanalei and Lihue as well as from Waimea. The sum- 

 mit is an extensive bog like Napali, abounding in deep mud-holes, and several natives having 

 lost their lives there, it is difficult to obtain guides or even bearers to ascend except during 

 very dry seasons, as in September. 1 



Ten or twelve miles west of Waimea in the district of M£na, the coral reef has been 

 elevated in a long wide ridge transversely to the present shore line. It is much fissured, 

 as if a stream of lava had forced its way beneath it. Near Lapa, in this same district at 

 the south-western end of the Pali, is a very curious sand-bank formed by the wind and 

 currents which strike the island here with great force. This bank is nearly sixty feet high, 



Fis 



be b 



t. Natural Section in Hanap^p^ 



l The author found it impossible, even with the offer of five times the usual wages, to obtain guides in July I860, although 

 the streams were low and the weather favorable. 



MEMOIRS HOST. SOC. NAT. HIST. Vol. I. Pt. 3. 89 



