4 2 



HA WAIL 



[letter IV. 



thing of beauty, gladness, and sunshine. It is indigenous 

 here, and wild, but never bears seeds, and is propagated solely 

 by suckers, which spring up when the parent plant has fruited, 

 or by cuttings. It bears seed, strange to say, only (so far as is 

 known) in the Andaman Islands, where, stranger still, it 

 springs up as a second growth wherever the forests are cleared. 

 Go to the palm-house, find the Musa sapientum, magnify it ten 

 times, glorify it immeasurably, and you will have a laggard 

 idea of the banana groves of Hilo. 



The ground is carpeted with a grass of preternaturally vivid 

 green and rankness of growth, mixed with a handsome fern, 

 with a caudex a foot high, the Sadleria cyathoides, and another 

 of exquisite beauty, the Microlepia tenuifolia, which are said to 

 be the commonest ferns on Hawaii. 



Hilo is a lively place for such a mere village; so many 

 natives are stirring about, and dashing along the narrow roads 

 on horseback. This is a large airy house, simple and tasteful, 

 with pretty engravings and water-colour drawings on the walls. 

 There is a large bath-house in the garden, into which a pure, 

 cool stream has been led, and the gurgle and music of, many 

 such streams fill the sweet, soft air. There is a saying among 

 sailors, " Follow a Pacific shower, and it leads you to Hilo." 

 Indeed there is a rainfall of from thirteen to sixteen feet 

 annually. These deep verandahs are very pleasant, for they 

 render window-blinds unnecessary; so there is nothing of that 

 dark stuffiness which makes indoor life a trial in the closed, 

 shadeless Australian houses. 



Miss Karpe, my travelling companion, is a lady of great 

 energy, and an adept in the art of travelling. Undismayed by 

 three days of sea-sickness, and the prospect of the tremendous 

 journey to the volcano to-morrow, she extemporised a ride to 

 the Anuenue Falls on the Wailuku this afternoon, and I weakly 

 accompanied her, a burly policeman being our guide. The 

 track is only a scramble among rocks and holes, concealed by 

 grass and ferns, and we had to cross a stream, full of great 

 holes, several times. The Fall itself is very pretty, no feet in 

 one descent, with a cavernous shrine behind the water, filled 

 with ferns. There were large ferns all round the Fall, and a 

 jungle of luxuriant tropical shrubs of many kinds. 



Three miles above this Fall there are the Pei-pei Falls, very 

 interesting geologically. The Wailuku River is the boundary 

 between the two great volcanoes, and its waters, it is supposed 

 by learned men, have often flowed over heated beds of basalt, 



