Chap, xix.] HONOLULU. 429 



on the penultimate), and Molokai. These islands of the 

 Hawaiian group are most remarkable for the extremely barren 

 aspect which they present as viewed from seawards. In this 

 respect they differ from all other Pacific Islands which were 

 visited during the Voyage of the " Challenger " ; no trees or 

 shrubs form a feature in the view, but the hill slopes are covered 

 with a scanty clothing of grass and low herbage, which in the 

 summer season is yellow and parched. 



Only one scanty grove of Cocoanut-trees is to be seen on the 

 shore of Oahu Island, to the east of the town of Honolulu, 

 whilst westwards the barren plains and distant bare hills recalled 

 almost St. Vincent, Cape Verde Islands, in their sterility. 

 Here are no thick belts of Cocoanut-trees fringing the shores 

 as at Tonga, with littoral vegetation overhanging the very surf; 

 no dense forests clothing the mountains from the summits to 

 the shore as at Fiji, or the Admiralty Islands. 



There is little more show of vegetation in the general ap- 

 pearance of the islands, as seen from seawards, than is to be 

 seen on the bleak Marion Island in the Southern Ocean. 



The harbour of Honolulu is entered by a narrow channel in 

 a not very extensive fringing reef. The town lies on an almost 

 flat expanse immediately adjoining the shore, and is not very 

 conspicuous from the distance. It is composed of streets of 

 very various widths, laid out at right angles to one another, 

 lined on either side by very irregular rows of houses of all kinds, 

 mostly wooden shanties, the greater part of them occupied as 

 general stores. 



There is a large shop of Chinese and Japanese curiosities, 

 and two photographers' shops, where corals, imported mostly 

 from the Marquesas, and spurious imitations of native imple- 

 ments manufactured for sale, are disposed of, at exorbitant 

 prices, to passengers by the mail steamers. I was told that a 

 Chinaman is even employed to manufacture facsimiles of the 

 stone gods of the ancient Hawaiians for sale as genuine curiosi- 

 ties ; the forged deities being represented as having been dug 

 up in taro-fields. 



The business streets are very hot and dusty, but around the 

 hotel and villa dwelling-houses on the east side of the town are 

 pretty gardens, filled with the usual imported tropical garden 

 plants, shrubs, and trees, which are maintained alive only by 

 constant irrigation; hoses from the town supply-pipes being 

 kept playing on them day and night. Twenty years ago, where 

 these gardens now are, there was not a single tree, and now the 

 gardens form only a small oasis in a dry parched desert, which 

 extends along the coast east and west, and is soon reached on 

 leaving the town in either of these directions. 



