190 [August, 



A COLLECTING- TRIP ON HALEAKALA, MAUI, SANDWICH ISLANDS. 

 BY R. C. L. PEEKINS, M.A. 



After a week of unsettled weather which showed no sign of 

 change, I left the mountains of West Maui and started for Haleakala, 

 the great mountain which forms the whole eastern part of this Island, 

 with the intention of camping out for a month.* Leaving in the 

 morning, we had by 4 p.m. ascended some 5000 feet above sea-level, 

 and although I had intended to push on several miles further, the 

 drizzling rain which had been falling for an hour or more decided me 

 to stop. Dismissing the boy who had accompanied me with his horses, 

 I fixed up the " fly" of my tent, building in the open ends with large 

 logs and woven ferns. For a fortnight the wet weather continued 

 with squalls from the south-west, and dead calms between, but after- 

 wards the usual trade-winds blew strongly day and night, and no 

 further rain fell until I left at the end of the month. The first half 

 was by far the better period for collecting ; but it was less comfortable, 

 the dripping vegetation and soaked ground affording abed which soon 

 became little better than a manure heap, and though agreeable enough 

 to sundry species of Carabidce, was far otherwise to the camper out. 

 However, with the fine weather, trenches dug around soon drained the 

 ground, and though I had been forced to leave the tent at home, the 

 " fly," when the ends were closed up, kept everything snug enough, 

 though it had added but 9 lbs. to the impedimenta. At 5000 feet the 

 change from the tropical heat of the lowlands is very great, bright 

 starry nights being particularly cold, but there was no frost during my 

 stay, although some months previously it had been severe enough to 

 form quite thick ice. 



The upper edge of the forest proper seemed far from rich in the 

 variety of its trees. " Koa " (Acacia koa) and " Ohia" (Metrosideros) 

 are the chief components. Scattered amongst them in lesser numbers 

 are the " Mamane " {Sophora chrysophylla), the " Olapa " {Oheiroden- 

 dron), another genus unknown to me by name, and still less al)undanly 

 a species of PeJea, generally festooned with grey lichen and very at- 

 tractive as a shelter for many species, not to mention others confined 

 to it — Micro-Lepidoptera, Chrysopa, Hemerohius and certain Anohiids. 



The underbrush is a dense growth of fern and native raspberry 

 (Bubus macrcei, '' akala " of natives), whose flowers are the delight of 

 several honey-sucking birds, and produce a very large, edible (but bitter) 

 berry. Cattle and wild pigs form runs through this growth, and by 



* In Miiy, IRftfi. 



