GEOLOGY ANT) TOIM)GRAPlIY OF TIAWATT. 113 



tains to correspond in age witii the central dt)nie of Kauai and that an enormous 

 amount of erosion has left but the skeleton of a vast dome that was much liigher 

 and more symmetrical than its tiine-scarred outline would now suggest. 



It is thought that it was long after the Waianae Range ^ was formed as a 

 separate island, before the Koolan Range.- ])egan to hudd itself uj) aliove the 

 sea to form an annex, as it were, to the original island which had Kaala 

 as its center. Thus, according to Dana and o1her geologists, Oahu was formed 

 as a volcanic doublet — the work of two volcanoes whose adjacent sides, by lava 

 tlows and by erosion, have been united in the ])lains of Wahiawa, but whose 

 forms have been so eroded that the exact position and extent of tlicii- craters 

 has not been indicated with certainty. 



The Pali. 



The magnitude of the second crater is perhaps best appreciated from the 

 historic landmark and pass through the Koolau Range known as the Pali, a word 

 signifying in Hawaiian, a steep precipice. The Pali is approached from Hono- 

 lulu by a road five or six miles in length that ^\inds up the floor of Nunanu Val- 

 ley until at an elevation of 1,207 feet, with the peak of Lanihuli,^ on the left, 

 and Konahuanui."^ the highest peak in the Koolau Range, on the right, it sud- 

 denly ends in a vertical drop of 70(1 feet. Several miles of almost vertical 

 basaltic clitfs, — the eroded walls of this vast crater — stretch away on either 

 hand. The Pali is truly Oahu's scenic lion. It is a na.tural wonder, that as a 

 genuine surprise has nothing to equal it in all the world. From its sheer edge, 

 the splendid panoramic view of the windward side of the island is spread out at 

 the observer's feet — a view of rugged mountains, of cliffs, of country side, of 

 quiet bays, of coral strands, and of the open sea that has beggared the descriptive 

 powers of the most gifted. 



Here the observer comes to appreciate not only the stupendous constructive 

 power of nature that has called the island into being, but also those destructive 

 agencies Avliich, through countless centuries have been tearing down the solid 

 rock, disintegrating, transporting and distributing it according to well-established 

 natural laws. 



With its long, vertical crater wall standing abreast of the noi-theast trade 

 winds, and with the elevation and other conditions favorable to l)ring about an 

 abundant rainfall, the Koolau range, on the leeward side, especially, has l)een 

 furroAved from end to end into a series of deep lateral valleys, separated from 

 each other by nearly parallel ridges that are conspicuous and significant fea- 

 tures of the general topography of the island. Tlie lai'ger and more iiiii>oi-taii1 

 of these valleys and ridges have a genei'al southwestei-ly Ireud. The si reams 

 which rise in the section between the Koolau ami the Waianae chain, however, 

 are deflected by reason of thi- high plateau nt Wahiawa so that pari of them 

 enter the sea at Waialua. while others join in the Hwa disti'ici of ttie island 



' Fornied l)y an elliptic crater. -The remains nf an eloiiKiited crater. ^ 2275 feet -"SIO.} feet. 



