164 BULLETIN OF THE 



coral beaches alternate with darker lava silt brought down from the 

 neighboring mountains, often forming very extensive shore flats, of 

 which the Chinamen, by damming out the sea, have taken advantage 

 for cultivation ; along part of Kaneohe Bay there is quite an extensive 

 flat thoroughly cultivated, where cattle are turned out. This flat is 

 formed of coral sand, extending far out to Mokolii Island from the 

 adjoining headland, from which diverge coral patches. On rounding the 

 northern end of the bay we see that the reef north of Mokolii comes 

 close to the shore, and assumes the character of a narrow fringing reef, 

 following the shore line more or less regularly. At Kahana a small 

 harbor has been formed by the extension northward of the reef from 

 Makuua. Westward the road along the edge of the island runs behind 

 the shore sand dunes or the beach shelf, or on its summit. There is no 

 trace of elevation from the point to the south of Kaneohe Bay to the 

 great Kohuku reef-flat, extending south to Laie. 



At Kohuku there is a fine bluff of consolidated drift sand, of which 

 Dana has given an excellent figure. Similar drift rocks extend all round 

 the base of the slope of the foot-hills, marking the old shore line of the 

 Kohuku reef, which extends from this point as a flat coral plain, slightly 

 elevated (twenty to twenty-five feet) above the level of the sea, from half 

 a mile to a mile in width, to the present coral sand beach of Kohuku, 

 which is exposed to the full action of the trade-wind breakers, and has 

 thrown up a high sand-bank built up from the elevated reef. This ele- 

 vated reef extends all the way from Laie to Kohuku, the small outlying 

 islands being the remnants of sand di'ift rocks which are gradually being 

 eroded by the sea, and which have in former times, when the reef was 

 active, supplied the material for the innumerable sand drifts of the foot- 

 hills. These sand drifts have become gradually eroded into the most 

 fantastic shapes, covering the hillsides with innumerable small points 

 resembling Gothic spires. This elevated reef does not seem to be active 

 on its sea face. No soundings are available for that part of the shore, 

 and the heavy rollers break directly on the present sand beach, so that 

 the sea face is probably quite steep. 



Near Waimea the fringing coral reef crops out here and there behind 

 the high sand beach formed from the disintegration of the underlying ele- 

 vated reef. There, as at Kohuku, the reef seems to stop abruptly near 

 the line of beach breakers, and the slope appears steep, there being no 

 trace of recent reef corals beyond the line of shore breakers. The coral 

 sand at the back of the beach was thrown up to a height of from ten to 

 twenty feet. The breakers form a small lake across a gulch, of which 



