J. S. Emerson — Some Characteristics of Kau. 437 



Some years since I bad occasion to ride over a portion of this 

 road, which was two or three feet wide and is still readilj fol- 

 lowed. So long as the mule kept to the old path he made 

 good progress, but when he deviated but a few feet on either 

 side, he sank down to his girth in the sand and pumice and 

 floundered helplessly. It was most instructive to follow this 

 path to the great natural amphitheatre on the southern slope of 

 Puu o Keokeo, where the famous cock fights used to draw 

 immense crowds to witness one of the great national games of 

 Hawaii. The cock-pits or rather pens still stand, probably as 

 Umi left them three and a half centuries ago. Had there been 

 a shower of ashes or pumice from the vicinity of Puu o Keo- 

 keo during this interval, the old road and these cock-pits would 

 have disappeared forever beneath the sands of the desert. 



Since the above was written, Dr. A. B. Lyons of Oahu Col- 

 lege has kindly furnished the following statement : " I have had 

 occasion to examine the soil from some of the cane fields at 

 Pahala. They were remarkable in several particulars. They 

 contain a large proportion of organic matter, and yet could not 

 be called peaty. They seemed rather sandy. They contain 

 almost no clay. The mineral matter consists in fact of vol- 

 canic sand rich in olivine and very little decomposed — very 

 similar in many respects to the sandy or gravelly soil of 

 Punahou, w^iich is made from recent volcanic sand. The 

 abundance of lime in the soil confirmed also this view of its 

 probable origin. Hawaiian soils composed of decomposed lava 

 contain very little lime." 



For the sake of clearness, a brief recapitulation and summing 

 up of the argument with reference to the origin of the pecu- 

 liar Kau soil may properly conclude this paper. 



A district equal in extent to one-half the area of the Island 

 of Oahu, 300 square miles, is covered with a soil quite unlike 

 that of any adjoining district, and totally distinct from the 

 very recent volcanic bed rock on which much of it rests. The 

 entire absence of a single ledge of coral, bed of shells, or other 

 positive evidence of marine formation, and the frequent occur- 

 rence of caves and caverns which remain unfilled with silt, 

 together with the very porous character of the whole formation, 

 discredits the theory "of an extensive upheaval of this part of 

 the island at " any " epoch not very remote." On the contrary, 

 this formation originated on dry land and has not been sub- 

 merged. If this soil were alluvial it would show stratification. 

 Instead of that it is blanketed like newly fallen snow upon the 

 uneven contour of hill, plain and ridge. 



If this formation were deposited at tide level, it would be 

 interpenetrated by marine growths, animal and vegetable. But 

 the evidence that such growth exists is conspicuously wanting. 



