MAUI. 97, 
The elevation, poetically styled Hale-a-kala, “« House of the Sun,” has 
the general form of Mount Kea, with nearly the recent appearances of 
Mount Loa, and its height, as determined by the Expedition, is 10,217 
feet. The western peninsula consists of a mass of peaks and ridges, 
apparently without order or system; yet all evidently belong to a 
single region of igneous action. The highest point, Keka, is 6130 feet 
in altitude. 
The shores of the island differ as strikingly on the windward and 
leeward sides, as those of Hawai. Where exposed to the trades be- 
tween the north and south of east there is abundant vegetation, as the 
rains are frequent and streams numerous. ‘This is described as the best 
region for potatoes on the islands, and good for wheat. Deep valleys 
cut into the mountains, which at the shores are six to eight hundred 
feet deep, and gradually diminish upward, corresponding thus in size 
with the force of the descending torrents at different elevations. But 
on the leeward sides, the country is dry, and vegetation scanty. ‘At 
Lahaina,” on the southwest shores, “it scarcely ever rains, and sel- 
dom more than half a dozen times a year.”’ ‘The consequent sterility 
presents a strong contrast to the appearance of the Koolau coast. 
Irrigation has long been resorted to on the shore plain, and it is said 
to have been a custom of former times that each farmer should have 
the use of the water every fifth day.* 
East Maui.—Hale-a-kala is quite regular in its slopes in diffe- 
rent directions, with the exception already stated that its windward 
side is interrupted by gorges. It has the general form of an obtuse 
cone, and contains at summit the remains of one of the most remark- 
able craters in the group. By asimple calculation we ascertain that 
the average inclination of its sides is eight to ten degrees, thus exceed- 
ing a little the steepness of Kea and Loa. ‘There are many parasitic 
cones over its sides, and fresh-looking fields of lava. But the deep 
valleys to windward indicate a long cessation of its fires. The natives 
have a tradition that Pele, the goddess of Kilauea, once lived there, 
until frightened by the sea coming too near, when she fled to Hawaii. 
Such a tradition may be only an inference of the people from a resem- 
blance in features and the appearance of the rocks, to the Hawaiian 
volcano, but we are inclined to consider it a relation of an actual fact, 
inasmuch as the same fact is deeply imprinted on the mountain itself. 
* Rev, C. 8. Stewart, Missionary Herald, xxi. 40. 
