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were not sorry when we saw high above the morning mist the great 

 smooth gently rounded dome of Manna Loa, with smoke rising from 

 two craters, the somowliat more rugged crest of Manna Kea, and 

 the dark mass of Manna Hualalei. The scene was imposing, cahu, 

 and grand, rather from vastness than from any beauty of outline. 

 These three mountains of Hawaii are respectively 13,700, 13,800, 

 and 10,000ft. in height. They have not the sharply defined peaks 

 and crags common to most volcanic mountains. 



About mid-day on the Hth we made the shore, and landed at the 

 village of Kawaihae, on the north-eastern coast of Hawaii, situated 

 some 30 miles north of the Kaj'- where Captain Cook was killed. 

 At Kawaihae we visited the remains of a Heiau, or lieathon temple, 

 an enclosure surrounded and paved with stones, and with stone 

 terraces in front, on a slope descending towards the sea. Leaving 

 Kawaihae and its few clumps of cocoa nut palms, my friend and 

 I, with a native guide, turned our backs on the sea, and walking 

 westward ascended a long rise, where the wild indigo plant, the 

 prickly pear cactus, some grass and other vegetation, grew in thin 

 red volcanic soil amongst stones and scorios. A few miles brought 

 us to an elevated tract of table land of better soil, and to a settler's 

 homestead, wliere we obtained a horse and a little pack bull, and 

 secured the services of one or two more natives, a pleasant relief 

 from carrying our own food and baggage. Our journey then lay 

 along an upland valley, the Waimea, tolerably well grassed, with 

 here and there a grove of trees or bushes, and next entering fr-rests 

 chiefly composed of Koa (Acacia fidcatn) which bears a remarkable 

 resemblance to the Eucalypti in leaf and seed vessel, we rounded 

 the northern shoulder of Manna Kea, the most northerly of the 

 three great mountains, sometimes catching glimpses of the snow on 

 its summit range through the trees. It was near here that the 

 botanist Douglas met his death by tumbling into a pitfall, into which 

 a wild ox had already fallen, which gored and trampled him to 

 death. We met a few of these animals, with long horns like 

 a buffalo. We had only a shot gun and revolvers. They gazed at us 

 and retired ; had they charged, our little pack bull might liave fared 

 badly. Passing through these forests, where the wild strawberry 

 and raspberry abound, as does the " Cape Gooseberry " at a slightly 

 lower elevation, and having attained a height as nearly as I recollect 

 of about 3,f>00 or 4,000 feet, we commenced to descend on the north 

 eastern side of the island, in a beautiful and very well grassed 

 country which, deeply cut through by ravines filled with the 

 candle nut tree f" Aleuy'dcs triloba "), bread fruit, banana, and 

 other vegetation, and dotted with clumi)s of Pandanus ( P and anus 

 odorafissima) and bamboo, slopes down from the upland forests to 

 the cliffs, which rise abruptly from the sea. Nothing can be more 

 beautiful than this Hamakua disti-ict, or perfect than its climate. 

 Turning now to the southward, and crossing a seemingly intenninable 

 succession of very deep ravines, and wading through clear fresh 

 streams and rivers, that dash down their rocky beds, and often fall 

 in cascades over the cliffs into the sea, we reached the town of Hilo, 

 on Byron's Bay, on the Otli of November. As we approached it, we 

 pa.ssed a few small coffee and sugar plantations ; and just before we 

 reached it, we were amused by seeing a great part of its native 



