KAUAL 265 
scending torrent, the usual character higher up among the mountains: 
still it may have these precipitous features above the precipice. 
There is a fall of a much greater volume of water, though of far 
inferior beauty, on the Wailua River, which empties on the east side 
of Kauai. The fall is within two miles and a half of the sea. The 
river is making ¥% course through the shore plain, and is about thirty 
yards wide. It divides into several streams on reaching the edge, and 
plunges down a precipice one hundred and sixty feet in height into 
a foaming basin, and thence flows on, dashing for a while over a 
rocky bed between high enclosing walls. For the last two miles of 
its course, the river averages fifty yards in width, and through the last 
half mile, it is two to three fathoms deep. The valley is a beautiful 
one, and well worthy of a visit for its picturesque scenery. Above 
the fall, the river bed makes but a slight depression in the plain; but 
the channel continues increasing in depth as it recedes towards the 
mountains, and, not far distant, it becomes a narrow gorge, like that 
below. 
The principal rivers of Kauai have already been mentioned: they 
are the Hanalei, the Wailua, and the Hanapepe ; and there is another, 
of nearly equal importance, emptying at Waimea. ‘The Hanalei is 
navigable for canoes about three miles: for this distance, the width 
varies from fifty to one hundred and fifty feet, and the depth from 
three to ten feet. ‘The Wailua is the second in magnitude, and is 
navigable for canoes nearly to the falls. ‘The river isalmost closed at 
mouth by a sand-bar, which has reduced the fifty yards, its width 
above, to three or four yards, and has also rendered it very shallow. 
Otherwise it would afford safe anchorage for vessels drawing less 
than fifteen feet water. Nearly all the smaller streams are closed in 
the same manner by sand-bars, and so completely, that they may 
generally be crossed at mouth on dry land. ‘These sands are mostly 
from the coral reefs, and are thrown up by the sea. 
Kauai is considered the garden of the Hawaiian Group. The island 
has a peculiarly verdant appearance to one who has just left the arid 
shores of Southern Oahu. The mountains and the valleys are covered 
with forests; and the high shore plain, which forms a broad border to 
the island on the southern, eastern, and northern sides, is mostly a 
region of grass and shrubbery, shaded with occasional groves of pan- 
danus and kukui. The lower lands of the island lie all to windward 
of its mountains, and this is a sufficient cause of the prevailing ferti- 
lity. ‘The lofty summits, and the mountain plain of the west, are in 
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