254 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 
bluff side of the different hills either fronts the sea, or a valley which, 
at a former period, must have been an arm of the sea. 
There are 
many excavations in some of these hills, besides fissures, caused, in 
some instances, by a previous undermining from the action of water. 
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One hill of this sand-rock near Laiée is broken into large masses, 
twenty, thirty, or forty feet in their several dimensions, some of which 
stand three or four feet apart, leaving deep passages between ; 
The vertical 
appears as if it had been shattered by an earthquake. 
it 
surface, and the cavities below, are covered with a thick stalagmitic 
crust, illustrating the important agency of the rains towards producing 
these effects by undermining portions of the hill, and preparing it to 
be fissured either by its own weight or by earthquakes. 
This sand-rock has been described on page 45. Though gene- 
rally consisting of fine sand, it contains, in some places, pebbles of 
basalt, especially in the lower layers, as should be expected from the 
character of the shores on which the heaps were accumulated. Many 
portions of the present coast afford examples of the agglutination of 
basaltic pebbles by calcareous incrustations and depositions among 
them. (See page 44.) The thin laminated structure is interesting, 
as illustrating its formation from successive driftings, and also the 
effect of the winds in producing such a structure, even when 
there is no variation in the quality of the material. The complex 
character of the lamination is such as would proceed from the causes 
