HAWAIL 167 
About Hilo the country looks fresh and beautiful; three small 
craters in the landscape, overgrown with grass and shrubbery, contrast 
strongly with the barren lava cones of the southwestern coast. Clouds 
and sunshine offer their genial influences in nearly equal turns over 
the northeastern side of Hawaii, furnishing it richly with verdure, 
and affording a constant supply of water to the many streamlets. The 
river Wailuku, which empties into the bay of Waiakea, is remarkable, 
as well for its size, as for the falls of the “ rainbow,” as they are styled 
by the natives, a mile from its mouth. Between high vertical walls 
of basalt hung in tapestry of vines, shrubbery, ferns, and mosses, the 
waters plunge one hundred and twenty feet into a broad deep basin: 
a large cavern underneath forming a dark background to the foaming 
sheet. On the southern side there are a number of jets-d’eau playing 
from among the green leaves, and leaping gracefully into the pool 
below ; and on either side several cascades form silver threads coursing 
down the verdant walls. Just below the basin the gorge is subdivided 
into two branches by a bluff ridge, famous for its fine basaltic columns ; 
the stream follows the northern opening to the sea. 
We here close our brief sketches of the features of the island, made 
on the jaunt over Hawaii. From the accounts of others, we are 
assured that the country examined gives a very correct idea of the 
whole surface. The party which ascended Mount Loa to its summit 
from the Vincennes, under the direction of Captain Wilkes, represent 
the country passed over as abounding in lava streams, pahothor, and 
clinkers. Vegetation ceased at a height of 7000 feet: and beyond this, 
as Captain Wilkes remarks, there was nothing but widespread fields 
of black lava “which had apparently flowed in all directions from the 
summit.” Caverns were very numerous beneath the layers of lava, 
some of which were many miles in length, and they afforded the party 
an occasional night’s shelter. . | 
The interior section of the island, or table-land, between the three 
great mountains, is described as mostly a waste of lavas with number- 
less cones, especially along the declivities of Mount Loa; towards 
Kea there is more verdure, and upon its southern slopes cattle 
range and find sufficient pasturage. ‘The leeward declivities of this 
mountain are less fertile, and the Waimea district, which lies at its 
northwest foot, is said to be dry and unproductive. Vegetation con- 
tinues on Mount Kea to a height of 12,000 feet, thus exceeding much 
the elevation to which it extends on Mount Loa. Yet it is not sur- 
prising when we consider the cavernous nature of the rocks of the 
