OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 343 



The rock of which the mountain is built, is a heavy compact ferruginous basalt, toler- 

 ably uniform throughout ; while the shore ridges contain less iron, are more cellular, and 

 vary in their structure from a compact phonolite to a heavy basalt. Crystals of quartz and 

 iron pyrites are found in various parts of the Island, and in some places the silica of the lava 

 has been converted into an opal like irregular mass. 



The valley of Hanalei opens on the northern coast, and at its mouth is one of the best har- 

 bors in Kauai. At the shore the valley is two or three miles wide, but its bounding- ridsres 

 gradually approach each other, and five miles from the sea a narrow gorge alone remains, the 

 bed of the largest river on the Island, of the same name as the valley. This river takes its 

 rise in the swampy summit of Waialeale and descends gradually without high falls. The 

 last four miles of its course it has but little current, is from fifty to two hundred feet wide, 

 and from two to fifteen feet deep. The bottom is gravelly or sandy, and free from stones. 

 The plain bordering its banks is very fertile, and has been occupied in succession by planta- 

 tions of mulberries, coffee, and sugar-cane. 



Westward of the valley of Hanalei there is a region about twelve square miles in extent, 

 quite mountainous and much cut up by deep ravines. The valley of Waioli is remarkable 

 for its circular form and precipitous walls formed by the ridges Namalahda and Namalokama, 

 between two thousand five hundred and three thousand feet high. Extending to the west- 

 ward Namalahoa ends abruptly at the sea in a pall (precipice) about two hundred feet high. 

 The canons of Lumahal and Wainiha are narrow and picturesque, with nearly perpendicular 

 sides and frequent cascades. Every ravine is a watercourse, and after the frequent rains the 

 white threads of the waterfalls are seen breaking out all over the palis among the bright 

 green of the Kukiii (Aleurites moluccana) and the darker ferns. 



The soil of the ridges near the shore is reddened by the oxidation of the iron which 

 forms an important part of the Hawaiian lava, 1 and contains small boulders formed of 

 concentric layers of a loose friable stone around a hard, amorphous, argillaceous core. 

 These coats are loose and may be easily separated like the skins of an onion. The strata 

 nearer the mountains where the rivers have exposed sections, are deep, (thirty to eighty 

 feet,) and have a regular dip of 5°-10° towards the north. The exposed edges are much 

 decomposed, the lava being generally cellular but not scoriaceous, and the soil formed is of 

 a very dark color from the combination of the oxide of iron with organic acids, while the 

 entire wall is often covered with the luxuriant foliage of the ferns, leguminous creepers, 

 and LobeliaceEe. 



In the valley of Wainiha, some five miles from the coast, is the precipitous ascent to the 

 high table-land of the western district of Napali. This valley is exceedingly fertile, and 

 is filled with the kukui-tree, bread-fruit, orange, banana, the fragrant pandanus, and kalo 

 (Colocasia antiquoram, var. esculenUi). The ford of the Wainiha River is difficult at high tide 

 owing to the large and small loose, smooth stones on the bottom ; the beds of the other 

 rivers here are usually smooth and sandy. 



Two miles beyond on the coast are the remarkable caves of Haena formed in the abrupt 

 broken end of the ridges of Mauna Hina. The largest cave is more than a hundred feet 

 wide at the mouth and twenty feet high, extending into the mountain several hundred feet, 

 gradually becoming narrower and lower, until the explorer is obliged to creep on hands and 

 knees to an artificial wall which is said to block up a sepulchral cave. The roof is very 



1 See Analyses below. 



