TUTTLE ENGINEERING NOTES ON HAWAII. 147 



Oahu, and Hilo on Hawaii. The latter is large, but lacks a breakwater, 

 which will doubtless be provided shortly and will render it safe. The 

 entrance to Pearl Harbor is barred by a coral reef, which is now being 

 removed by the United States War Department, so as to form an en- 

 trance; the completion of this work is to be followed by the establish- 

 ment of a large naval station, and it will open up a most commodious, 

 land-locked and safe deep-water harbor. 



The coast line, where protected, is fringed with a bed of coral, 

 which extend sseaward for a long distance, leaving very shallow 

 water. Where it is exposed to the steady action of the waves driven 

 up by the prevailing trade winds, it has been eaten into with the forma- 

 tion of precipitous cliffs, dropping from heights of as great as 1 700 ft. 

 directly into deep water; here a vessel venturing too close incurs the 

 risk of being driven upon a rocky and uninviting coast. Communica- 

 tion between vessels and the shore is established either by whale boats 

 or by cables; where the former are used along a bold coast line, they 

 deliver their cargo into a bucket operated by a crane on the shore, and 

 after the same has been landed at the base of the cliffs it is elevated to 

 the plateau above by a cable railway built at an angle of, perhaps, 45, 

 or even greater. 



Industrial Plant*. The largest undertaking of this character is the 

 Honolulu Iron Works, which was organized in 1853 and is capitalized 

 for $500 000. The buildings are modern in character, occupy a site 

 having an area of over 6 acres, and are equipped for building pumps, 

 boilers, steel pipe and sugar-mill machinery, and for repairing vessels. 

 The buildings include a machine shop, foundry, boiler shop, pattern 

 shop, blacksmith shop, and coppersmith shop. From 400 to 600 me- 

 chanics are usually employed. 



Forestry. The Hawaiian trees are of varieties quite unknown here, 

 and most of them are exceptionally hard. As already noted, it was the 

 shipment of valued woods that marked the first era in the history of 

 commerce with the islands, practically exhausting the sandalwood 

 supply, which was sold in China. Where not too arid, or lacking in 

 fertility, the lowlands along the coasts have been turned into sugar 

 cane, while the less rugged inland areas are largely used as sheep and 

 cattle ranches. The latter use, in particular, is largely responsible for 

 denuding large areas of what was formerly forest lands, as the cattle 

 break down the young trees, which would otherwise replace the old 



