OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 357 



interior of the mountain, and this is particularly the case in the projecting buttresses. Low 

 ridges run out like projecting arms, often encircling crater-like valleys. This is especially 

 common through the region from Waimanalo to Kaneohe. Two ridges, one of them nearly 

 two thousand feet high, extend completely to the sea enclosing the district of Kailua, and 

 between these occur many circular depressions with smooth rounded walls, and hills of red 

 ochre. The many brooks in this neighborhood have confused the original outline of these 

 hills and valleys by cutting through them and sometimes nearly filling the hollows with 

 alluvial deposits. The coast ridge is very sharp and needle-like, and must have occupied 

 nearly the centre of Prof. Dana's supposed crater. 



From Kaneohe to Kahuku is the most fertile region of Oahu. The soil is deep, well 

 watered, and is covered in many places by fields of sugar-cane. Tobacco, cotton, and ground- 

 nuts also do well here. Kaneohe is directly opposite to Nuuanu Valley, and is remarkable 

 for its series of coast craters. The main ridge changes its character beyond towards the 

 west, and valleys and ravines cut their way into the interior of the mountain. A curious 

 circular valley is directly opposite the village of Kaneohe, and is a fair type of many valleys 

 on the islands. 



The strata evidently dip towards the N. E. as well as to the S. W., and in the valley of 

 Ahumanu a fine spring gushes forth from the mountain wall in the direction of the strata. 

 Farther to the west, the scenery grows wilder and more grand. The lateral ridges approach 

 the sea; retaining, however, the identical appearance of the Koolau Pali, their black, almost 

 perpendicular rock-walls often being destitute of vegetation for eight hundred feet in height, 

 and above and below this bare space clothed with dense foliage. At the head of Punalfiu 

 Valley is a large cone crater, from which radiate several valleys, as the Kahana, Kaliiwaa, 

 PunaKiu, and others. This crater is densely wooded, and occupies nearly the centre of 

 the range. No one seems to have ascended it, and it is impossible to say how deep the 

 cavity may be, but the internal slopes as seen from below seem to be quite steep, and 

 probably the outer wall is broken down. Around the base is a large swamp in which 

 several streams take their rise, the Kahana being one of the largest in Oahu. 



The adjoining valley of Kaliiwaa or Kaliuaa, much resembles that of Hanapepe on Kauai. 

 Entering the lofty portals which rise in pinnacles a thousand feet, the explorer finds himself 

 in a dark and narrow aisle, less than sixty feet wide, and enclosed with inaccessible walls at 

 least eight hundred feet high. A clear cold stream runs over the stony bed shaded by the 

 dark green foliage of the ohia ai [Eugenia malaccemis, Linn.). In ancient times this was a 

 place sacred to the native divinities, and even now, so impressive is the solemn grandeur of 

 the scene, that the natives make an offering of a few leaves placed beneath a stone, that 

 the wrathful gods may not hurl rocks from above upon the sacrilegious intruder. 



A quarter of a mile from the entrance is one of the curiosities which gives the valley its 

 name (Ka-lii-waa, the chief's canoe). On the right, at the head of a small ravine, some fifty 

 yards from the stream, is a perpendicular wall over which a former stream fell nearly three 

 hundred feet ; and the water has worn a perfectly regular, smooth groove, much resembling 

 a cast of a native canoe. About a mile beyond this is a similar but more perfect channel. 

 For nearly a thousand feet the vertical wall is cut into by a conical groove twenty-five feet 

 wide and fourteen deep at the bottom, but regularly diminishing as it approaches the top 

 of the cliffs. That this was formerly the bed of a stream, and that water was the sole for- 

 mative agent, is very evident, although the perfection of the work, the smoothness of the 



MEMOIUS HOST. SOC. NAT. HIST. Vol. I. Pt. 3. 91 



