TIME AND CHANGE 



they were composed of soot and brick-dust. One of 

 them is much larger than any of the rest. I thought 

 it might be two hundred feet high. *' It is eight hun- 

 dred," said our guide; yet its summit was more than 

 a thousand feet below the rim upon which we sat. 

 There has been no eruption in Haleakala since 

 earlj^ in the last century. Over a large area of the 

 interior the black lava, cracked and crumpled, meets 

 the eye. Miles down one of its great arms toward 

 the sea, we could see the green lines of vegetation, 

 mostly rank ferns, advancing like an invading army. 

 Far ahead were the skirmishers, loose bands of ferns, 

 with individual plants here and there pushing on 

 over the black, uneven surface toward the second- 

 ary craters of the centre. Vegetation was also 

 climbing down the ragged sides of the crater, drop- 

 ping from rock to rock like an invading host. The 

 ferns, those pioneers of the vegetable world, appear 

 to come first. Their giant progenitors subdued the 

 rocks and made the soil in Carboniferous times, and 

 prepared the way for higher vegetable forms, and 

 now these striplings take up the same task in this 

 primitive world of the crater of Haleakala, Their 

 task is a long and arduous one, much more so than 

 in those parts of the island where the rainfall is more 

 copious; but give them time enough, and the barren 

 lava will all be clothed with verdure. When decom- 

 posed and ripened by time, it makes a red, heavy 

 soil that supports many kinds of plants and trees. 



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