(JKOLOGV AM) TOl'OdlLM'JJY OF HAWAII. 149 



hin-r Idiincl tlicii' wiiy down In the sfH-shnrc. If-avinjr 'olackcned, desolate tracks 

 l]i-|]i)iil 1li:it iiMtiirc and tlio lai)sc of tiiur; have done little 1o repair. 



TnK KonALA Range. 



While the island, owing to its active volcanoes, is considered as the youngest 

 island of the group there is little doubt but that the Kohala Range, forming 

 the northwest point, is the remains of a very old, perhaps among the oldest of 

 the Hawaiian volcanoes. 



The slopes are deeply cut and the work of degradation has left deep canons 

 and enormoas cliffs as the evidence of great antiquity. This portion of Hawaii 

 is somewhat .separated from the younger group of craters, being isolated from its 

 neighljors, llualalai and ^launa Kea, by the tableland of Waimea.-* The summit 

 of the Kohala ilountains ■• is made up of a series of cinder cones and. owing 

 to the great rainfall, is a heavily w'ooded bog like that on the top of Kaala on 

 Dahu, and W^aialeale on Kauai. All of the windward slope of the range is 

 ninch eroded, and is densely wooded. 



From the coast the range appears as a series of deep canon-like valleys 

 that end three or four miles inland with vertical cliffs from 1.500 to 2,000 

 feet in height. Among the more noteworthy and scenic of these are the val- 

 leys of W^aipio and Waimanu. The walls of these stream basins, especially after 

 a heavy rain, are a veritable display of waterfalls, some of them pouring down in 

 a sheer drop for 1,500 feet. So va.st and profound are thesa gorges, and so 

 steep are their sea faces, that their formation seems due to some great fault 

 along the sea cliffs, which caused a portion of the mountain to drop out of sight 

 beneath the waves, leaving great lateral fractures to form into valleys through 

 the action of the elements ; though it is quite probable they may prove, on further 

 study, to be the remains of valleys formed before the subsidence of the Kohala 

 mountains. 



(^n the opposite side of the mountain, along the shore from Kawaihae 

 Bay around to the north point'' of Hawaii, the surface of the island is 

 more regular, though at several places lava streams have issued in ancient times 

 from craters higher up and flowed down to the coast. The road from Waimea 

 to Kohala is at an elevation of fifteen hundred feet or more and leads pa.st 

 several of the cones that dot this region. Some of these are perfect cones four 

 or five hundred feet in height ; others are much disintegrated and appear as little 

 more than rounded hills. 



The soil of the district is a rich, red. ochreous earth and when well watered 

 is very fertile. It was at Kohala that one of the early and successful planta- 

 tions was established. 



Mauna Kea. 



The principal part of the northea.st coast of Hawaii is formed bj' Mauna 

 Kea, which occupies more than half of the northern part of the island. Although 



