86 NATURAL HISTORY OP HAWAII. 



the islands are far-famed. Being excellent swimmers from their youth the na- 

 tives were as a race devoid of fear. They would leap from high precipices into 

 the foaming surf below, fifty, sixty and seventy feet; and it is still common to 

 see the swimmers and divers in the harbor leap one after another from the 

 bridge or from the life boats of the largest ocean steamers. But riding the 

 surf with the surfboard was and is still the favorite amusement, and an art in 

 which the Ilawaiians alwaj'S exhibited wonderful skill and dexterity. For 

 this amusement a plank, preferably of koa wood, known as a surfboard, was 

 used. It was a coffin-shaped plank averaging about ten feet in length by a 

 foot and a half in width, though they were occasionally eighteen feet or more 

 in length, and from that ranged down to very small ones for children. Some 

 were made of the very light wiliwili wood. They were always made with great 

 care and were kept smoothly polished. The swimmer, witli his board, would 

 gradually work his way out through the shallow water, over the fringing coral 

 reef to where the high rollers rise over the outer reef and follow each other 

 in rapid succession over the table-like reef toward the shore. The more terrific 

 the surf, the greater the pleasure to those skilled in the sport, a form of recreation 

 that is en.ioyed in these modern and more strenuous times by natives and foreign- 

 ers alike. 



Selecting the proper kind of wave, the surf-rider wovild get his board under 

 way by paddling furiously with his hands and feet. At the proper moment, mount- 

 ing a high wave he throws himself on the board just as it is seized by the force 

 of the on-rushing water. Skillful manipulation is required to manage and keep 

 the board just abreast of the crest of the towering wave, w'hich, if everything 

 goes as planned, carries the swimmer and his board, at race-horse speed, clear 

 into the shallow water at the beach. 



In this manner they disported themselves for hours at a time, returning 

 again and again, often standing erect and gracefully poised on their boards as 

 they w^ere wafted in on the bosom of the foam-capped wave. Surf-riding ex- 

 tended to canoe racing in which the principle just indicated was even more 

 elaborately applied. 



Strong crews of picked men would man their l:>est type of racing canoes 

 and pull out to where the surf began to rush over the reef. There amid the rush 

 and dash of the sea, each crew would aw;iit tlie signal, when the race would 

 begin, each man paddling furiously, until the canoes were caught by the waves, 

 and amid wild shouts of exhilaration, scarcely avidible above the oci-an's roar, 

 the successful crew would reach the shore, claiming the race, to the unlKuuided 

 joy of all. 



Thus we have hastilj' passed in review, the life, the customs and the culture 

 of this splendid, though vanishing race. We have seen how. though isolated 

 as they were from their own kind, tliey (levelojied a natural civilization well 

 adapted to their needs and their peculiar envirdninent. We can now approach 

 the natural liistory of the animals and plants, and the land itself, with a lietter 



