5° 



HA WAIL 



[letter v. 



bull of hideous aspect, with crumpled horns. Two picturesque 

 native vaccheros on mules accompanied them, and my nagging 

 spirits were raised by their news that the volcano was quite 

 active. The owner of these cattle knows that he has io,oco 

 head, and may have a great many more. They are shot for 

 their hides by men who make shooting and skinning them a 

 profession, and, near settlements, the owners are thankful to 

 get two cents a pound for sirloin and rump-steaks. These, 

 and great herds which are actually wild and ownerless upon 

 the mountains, are a degenerate breed, with some of the worst 

 peculiarities of the Texas cattle, and are the descendants of 

 those which Vancouver placed on the islands and which 

 were under Tabu for ten years. They destroy the old trees by 

 gnawing the bark, and render the growth of young ones im- 

 possible. 



As it was getting dark we passed through a forest strip, 

 where tree-ferns from twelve to eighteen feet in height, and with 

 fronds from five to seven feet long, were the most attractive 

 novelties. As we emerged, " with one stride came the dark," 

 a great darkness, a cloudy night, with neither moon nor stars, 

 and the track was further obscured by a belt of ohias. There 

 were five miles of this, and I was so dead from fatigue and 

 want of food, that I would willingly have lain down in the bush 

 in the rain. I most heartlessly wished that Miss K. were tired 

 too, for her voice, which seemed tireless as she rode ahead in 

 the dark, rasped upon my ears. I could only keep on my 

 saddle by leaning on the horn, and my clothes were soaked 

 with the heavy rain. " A dreadful ride," one and another had 

 said, and I then believed them. It seemed an awful solitude 

 full of mystery. Often, I only knew that my companions were 

 ahead by the sparks struck from their horse's shoes. 



It became a darkness which could be felt. 



" Is that possibly a pool of blood ? " I thought in horror, as 

 a rain puddle glowed crimson on the track. Not that indeed ! 

 A glare brighter and redder than that from any furnace sud- 

 denly lightened the whole sky, and from that moment bright- 

 ened our path. There sat Miss K. under her dripping um- 

 brella, as provokingly erect as when she left Hilo. There Upa 

 jogged along, huddled up in his poncho, and his canteen shone 

 red. There the ohia trees were relieved blackly against the 

 sky. The scene started out from the darkness with the sud- 

 denness of a revelation. We felt the pungency of sulphurous 

 fumes in the still night air. A sound as of the sea broke on 



