GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF HAWAII. 149 



have found their way down to the sea-shore, leaving blackened, desolate tracks 

 behind that natnre and the lapse of time have done little to repair. 



The Kohala 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 enormous cliffs as the evidence of great antiquity. This portion of Hawaii 

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

 neighbors, Hualalai and j\Iauna Kea, by the tableland of AVaimea.-' The summit 

 of the Kohala Mountains ^ is made up of a series of cinder cones and, owing 

 to the great rainfall, is a heavily wooded bog like that on the top of Kaala on 

 Oahu, and Waialeale on Kauai. All of the windward slope of the range is 

 much 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 Waipio 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 vast and profound are these 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 l)e the remains of valleys formed before the subsidence of the Kohala 

 mountains. 



On 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 .-ineient 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 past 

 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 mikI \\ hen well watered 

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

 tions was established. 



Maun A Kea. 



The principal part of the northeast coast of Hawaii is foi'incd by Mauna 

 Kea, w^hich occupies more than half of the northern ])art of the island. Althoutzh 



' 2670 feet. * 5489 feet. ^ Upolu. 



