350 



W. T. BRIGHAM ON THE VOLCANIC PHENOMENA 



and is constantly advancing on the land, the front wall being of as steep an angle as the 

 sand will permit ; the same angle is preserved from top to bottom, without the slightest 

 debris at the base. The sand is white, coarse and composed of coral, shells and lava. When 

 two handfulls are slapped together a noise resembling the bark of a dog is heard, the place 

 being known as the " Barking Sands." This phenomenon also occurs near Koloa and at 

 other places, but requires that the sand be very dry. It is a common amusement for visitors 

 to slide their horses down the steep incline, when a noise as of subterranean thunder is heard, 

 which greatly terrifies animals not used to the experiment. The mirage is often seen on 

 this dry hot soil so perfectly, that strangers endeavor to ride round the extensive lake they 

 see before them. 



No scientific observers have examined the western pali thoroughly. The water is very 

 deep close to the shore, and the walls so perpendicular that canoes often pass between the 

 rock and the waterfalls, which are common after a rain, and sometimes strike the sea twenty 

 or thirty feet from shore. 



NIIHAU. 



Fifteen miles from Kauai is the Island of Niihau, which is different in many respects from 

 other islands of the group. It is twenty miles long by five wide, and consists of two 

 portions, the mountain region, and the plain which meets this on three sides, the latter so low 

 as to be almost invisible from Kauai. The mountain is not much channelled by the rains, 



Fig. 4. View of Niihau from Waime"a, Kauai. On the left is Kaiila, on the opposite side Lehia. 



which, however, are infrequent from the leeward position of the island, nor are the lower 

 slopes covered with vegetation ; small shrubs, ( Composite, Euphorbiacexx,, etc.,) and succulent 

 plants, constitute nearly the whole flora, indicating a dryness of the soil. The summit is 

 remarkably flat in a distant view, but on closer inspection appears undulating and irregular, 

 but wholly destitute of sharp peaks and narrow ridges. There is said to be no evident 

 crater. On the windward side the mountain meets the sea in a pali of nearly eighteen 

 hundred feet, exhibiting evident stratification. The rock is quite identical with that of the 

 western part of Kauai. 



The craters of Kaula and Lehiia belong to this island, and the latter is separated from 

 Niihau by a channel only half a mile wide, and one and a half fathoms deep, in which the 

 connecting bed of lava is plainly visible through the clear water. This lava is dark, in 

 layers of about a foot in thickness, and seems to dip toward the north-west. Lehua is mostly 

 composed of tufa, has a crater much broken down towards the south-west, and a spring of 

 good water. A colony of rabbits has for some years held undisputed possession, and is said 

 to have increased rapidly. 



