354 



W. T. BRIGHAM ON THE VOLCANIC PHENOMENA 



unsurpassed by any in the world. Nuuanu opens on the coast not far from the centre of 

 the range, directly behind Honolulu, and was once a bay or lagoon, protected towards the 

 sea by a reef of coral a mile wide, through which the fresh-water streams from the valley 

 made their way. This bay was nearly two miles deep and of the full width of the valley. 

 The elevation of the reef some twenty-five feet has furnished a site for Honolulu which 

 covers its whole width, and has converted the bay into a low but pleasantly situated plain. 

 Near what was formerly the head of the bay, the stumps of large tree ferns have been dug 

 up from a depth of five to ten feet, in such quantities as to serve for fencing material on a 

 small cane-field. No such ferns are found at present north of Hawaii. 



Ascending the valley by a gentle slope 

 among the gardens of the foreign resi- 

 dents, and the equally beautiful kalo-ponds 

 of the natives, one sees the ridges on either 

 side, at first broad and smooth, covered 

 with grass ; but soon these ridges become 

 steeper, their walls rise nearly perpendic- 

 ularly, fluted with the pathways of the 

 rain torrents, mantled with every shade of 

 green, and fringed at their base by dark 

 densely wooded dells. The origin of 

 Gothic architecture is referred to the 

 study of the form of trees, but here the 

 Divine Architect has reared a structure 

 far more suggestive than the forests ; and 

 the green archways of covered rock ex- 

 tend in long colonnades up the aisle leading 

 to a nave crowned by the spires of Wai- 

 olani, the " waters of Heaven." 



The valley becomes narrower, although 

 never a gorge ; and about four miles from 

 Honolulu, a low ridge crosses the road, 

 beyond which the walls are higher, more 

 precipitous, and seem to form an amphitheatre around a small cone crater which occupies 

 nearly the middle of the valley. Two miles beyond, the valley terminates on the brink of a 

 precipice twelve hundred feet in height, above which on either hand Konahuanui and Waiolani 

 tower three thousand feet higher. This is the famous Pali of Nuuanu, down whose steep 

 although not difficult descent, lies the road to the district of Koolau. The cliffs near the Pali 

 are much worn by the rain and wind which sweep through the narrow pass with terrific 

 violence during a storm, and several hills of red ochreous earth are ground and channelled 

 by the same agency into forms resembling those described in Colorado by Dr. J. S. Newberry. 1 

 Two dykes occur in the hard graystone of the cliff, and several rents at right angles to these 

 have formed small ravines. There are some indications of volcanic action in the neighbor- 

 hood, as scoriae and cinder deposits, but they are probably much older than the shore craters. 

 No distinct crater is visible, although the sides of the valley much resemble the encircling 



1 Report on the Colorado, by Lieut. J. C. Ives. Part iii.. p. 82, el passim. 



Fig. 6. Map of the Valleys near Honolulu. 



A, small cone in Nuuanu ; B, circus of Nuuanu Valley ; C, smooth conical peak 

 D, Manoa Valley j E, stream from Pauoa Valley ; F, stream from Maklki Valley. 



