43 



HA WAIL 



[letter v. 



likeness on a magnificent scale of a thick coat of cream drawn 

 in wrinkling folds to the side of a milk-pan. This lava is all 

 grey, and the greater part of its surface is slightly rough- 

 ened. Wherever this is not the case the horses slip upon it 

 as upon ice. 



Here I began to realize the universally igneous origin of 

 Hawaii, as I had not done among the finely disintegrated lava 

 of Hilo. From the hard black rocks which border the sea, 

 to the loftiest mountain dome or peak, every stone, atom of 

 dust, and foot of fruitful or barren soil bears the Plutonic 

 mark. In fact, the island has been raised heap on heap, ridge 

 on ridge, mountain on mountain, to nearly the height of Mont 

 Blanc, by the same volcanic forces which are still in operation 

 here, and may still add at intervals to the height of the blue 

 dome of Mauna Loa, of which we caught occasional glimpses 

 above the clouds. Hawaii is actually at the present time being 

 built up from the ocean, and this great sea of pahoehoe is not 

 to be regarded as a vindictive eruption, bringing desolation on 

 a fertile region, but as an architectural and formative process. 



There is no water, except a few deposits of rain-water in 

 holes, but the moist air and incessant showers have aided 

 nature to mantle this frightful expanse with an abundant vege- 

 tation, principally ferns of an exquisite green, the most con- 

 spicuous being the Sadleria, the Gleichenia Hawaiiensis, a run- 

 ning wire-like fern, and the exquisite Microlepia tenuifolia, 

 dwarf guava, with its white flowers resembling orange flowers 

 in odour, and ohelos (Vaccinium reticulatum), with their red 

 and white berries, and a profusion of small-leaved ohias (Me- 

 trosideros polymorpha), with their deep crimson, tasselled 

 flowers, and their young shoots of bright crimson, relieved the 

 monotony of green. These crimson tassels deftly strung on 

 thread or fibres, are much used by the natives for their lm, or 

 garlands. The ti tree (Cordyline terminalis) which abounds 

 also on the lava, is most valuable. They cook their food 

 wrapped up in its leaves, the porous root when baked, has the 

 taste and texture of molasses candy, and when distilled yields 

 a spirit, and the leaves form wrappings for fish, hard poi, and 

 other edibles. Occasionally a clump of tufted coco-palms, or 

 of the beautiful candle-nut rose among the smaller growths. 

 To our left a fringe of palms marked the place where the lava 

 and the ocean met, while, on our right, we were seldom out of 

 sight of the dense timber belt, with its fringe of tree-ferns and 

 bananas, which girdles Mauna Loa. 



