KAUAL 263 . 
Besides the interior mountains, there are some ridges near the east- 
ern shores which appear to be distinct from the others, as they lie 
between the border plain and the sea, or partly intersect this plain. 
One of these ridges extends along the southeast corner of the island, 
and passes inward towards Koloa. It has a broken summit with re- 
markably bold features ; and, from the appearance of the highest peak, 
has been called the Hoary Head ridge. 
The valleys of Kauai are as much more extensive than those of 
other islands of the group, as its peaks are more irregular, abrupt and 
broken. Hanalei Valley, which opens on the northern coast, is a 
wide plain for many miles, though becoming a narrow gorge above: 
it separates a ridge on the east from the mass of mountains on the west. 
Hanapepe Valley opens on the opposite or southern shore, and is one 
of the most extensive in the island. Its waters, like those of Hanalei, 
rise in part from the lofty peak Waialeale, the highest on the island. 
The valley of Hanapepe was visited by the author, and well de- 
serves some few words by way of description. We reached its enclos- 
ing walls, about four miles from the sea, where the sloping plain of 
the coast was just losing its smooth, undulating surface, and changing 
into the broken and wooded declivities of the interior. ‘The valley, 
which had been a channel through the grassy plain, a few hundred 
feet in depth, was becoming a narrow defile through the moun- 
tains. A strip of land lay below, between the rocky walls, covered 
with deep-green garden-like patches of taro, through which a small 
stream was hastening on to the sea. 
We found a place of descent, and three hundred feet down, reached 
the banks of the stream, along which we pursued our course. ‘The 
mountains, as we proceeded, closed rapidly upon us, and we were 
soon in a narrow gorge, between walls one thousand feet in height, 
and with a mere line of sky over head. ‘The stream dashed along 
by us, now on this side of the green strip of land, and then on that ; 
occasionally compelling us to climb up, and cling among the crevices 
of the walls to avoid its waters, where too deep or rapid to be conve- 
niently forded. Its bed was often rocky, but there was no slope of 
debris at the base of the walls on either side, and for the greater part 
of the distance it was bordered by plantations of taro. The style of 
mountain architecture, mentioned when speaking of Oahu, was ex- 
hibited in this shaded defile on a still grander scale. The mural 
surfaces enclosing it had been wrought, in some places, into a series 
