214 A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC chap. 



are some particularly wet mountains, and amongst these may 

 be placed the high table-land of Kauai (4,000 feet) and the 

 flat summit of Mount Eeka (6,000 feet) in West Maui. Here in 

 a region almost of eternal mist we have developed a special 

 bog-flora. 



Hillebrand describes the flat top of Mount Eeka as " wrapt in a 

 cloud of mist nearly the whole year." Whilst descending this 

 mountain I was overtaken by the darkness at a little under 

 5,000 feet above the sea. Through the night there was a con- 

 tinuous soft rain, or rather a heavy wet mist, and I passed it under 

 conditions suggestive of living in a sponge. Everything was reek- 

 ing with moisture. The air was saturated with it, and water 

 dripped from every leaf and branch, whilst the ground on which I 

 stood was soft and yielding and soaked with water like a sponge. 

 The surface was cut up by numerous narrow water-channels ten to 

 twenty feet deep and only a couple of feet wide, their very exist- 

 ence almost concealed by ferns, whilst torrents rushed along at 

 the bottom and kept up a strange music through the night. This 

 was the longest night I have ever experienced, as my standing- 

 ground was very limited, and with a water-channel a foot or two 

 away on either side I had to keep on my legs until the dawn. 



Above the cloud-belt, at elevations of 10,000 feet and over, the 

 rainfall is evidently very small. I have before remarked that 

 during my stay of twenty-three days (August 9-31) on the summit 

 of Mauna Loa (13,600 feet) the rain did not exceed one-third of 

 an inch in amount. I have by my side the report to the Weather 

 Bureau, compiled by Prof. Lyons, on the rainfall of this large island 

 of Hawaii for the entire month (August, 1897) ; and it enables one 

 to make a comparison, in some respects unique, of the distribution 

 of the August rainfall on Mauna Loa, from its base to its summit, 

 where it occupies the breadth of the island. Whilst on the east or 

 wet side from the coast up to 1,500 feet amounts ranging from 

 II to 15 inches were measured, on the west or dry side between 

 one and two inches were registered at the coast, and 10 inches 

 at Kealakekua, about 1,600 feet above the sea. But the level 

 of maximum precipitation would lie much further up the mountain 

 slopes on either side, probably at an altitude of 4,000 or 5,000 feet, 

 and here the rainfall for the month could not have been less 

 in either case than 20 inches. Above this line of greatest rainfall 

 the amount of atmospheric precipitation would become less and 

 less until beyond the upper forest zone above 10,000 feet to 

 the summit (13,600 feet) the quantity would be very small; and 



