LETTERS FROM HAWAII 



" I came to the conclusion positive that Wilkes's 

 western wall of the crater is wrong; so the ' conclusions ' 

 as to changes since 1840, on that side of the crater, in my 

 manuscript prepared for the latter part of my memoir, 

 are wrong. The last night of our week at Kilauea when 

 I did not go down into the crater, because of the rain and 

 also some cold which I had taken in consequence of a wet 

 trip the day before the party, ten in number, . . . 

 saw distinctly very pale greenish-white, scarcely bluish, 

 flames, one to three feet high, at four or five different 

 points in the feebly active lake. Kilauea disappointed 

 me much at first, as the great pit has an average depth 

 of only 420 feet, against the 650 feet to the black ledge 

 and 1000 to the bottom which I found in 1840. But it 

 was still full of interest, and several important points I 

 was able to settle. ' ' 



J. D. DANA TO HIS DAUGHTER MRS. COIT 



" HONOLULU, Aug. 28, 1887. 



" While the others are at church, I use the time this 

 evening to send you a message from the islands. In a 

 note to Ned of last Wednesday, I spoke of my return 

 from Hawaii the day before, and of my preparing to start 

 the next day on a three days' trip over this island, Oahu. 

 * From this trip I returned yesterday. Mr. Merritt, 

 President of Oahu College (Yale graduate of 1879), went 

 with me, taking his horse and carriage, and we had a de- 

 lightful time. The scenery along the way was grand 

 much of it of Colorado canyon style; and one or two of 

 the buttressed cathedrals which running water had carved 

 out of the old mountain are hardly exceeded in impres- 

 siveness anywhere. The low lands along the coast are in 

 many parts great rice-fields, through Chinese enterprise, 

 the Chinamen fast supplanting the Kanakas, owing to 

 their working qualities and knowledge. In their present 

 half-grown state these fields are a very pleasing sight, 

 owing to their rich green color. The fields are fields of 

 shallow water (fresh water from the mountains) in which 

 the Chinamen have set out in long rows the grass-like rice 

 plants. The plantations are at first but three or four 

 inches out of water, but most of them now from fifteen 



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