72 



HA WAIL 



[letter VIII. 



the snowy peaks of Mauna Kea on one side, and on the other 

 down upon the calm, blue Pacific, wrinkled by the sweet 

 trade-wind, till it blends in far-off loveliness with the still, blue 

 sky ; and heavy surges break on the reefs, and fritter them- 

 selves away on the rocks, tossing their pure foam over ti and 

 lauhala trees, and exquisite ferns and trailers mantle the cliffs 

 down to the water's edge. Here a native house stands, with 

 passion-flowers clustering round its verandah, and the great, 

 solitary, red blossoms of the hibiscus flame out from dark 

 surrounding leafage, and women in rose and green holokus, 

 weaving garlands, greet us with " Aloha " as we pass. Then 

 we come upon a whole cluster of grass houses under lauhalas 

 and bananas. Then there is the sugar-plantation of Kaiwiki, 

 with its patches of bright green cane, its flumes crossing the 

 track above our heads, bringing the cane down from the up- 

 land cane-fields to the crushing-mill, and the shifting, busy 

 scenes of the sugar-boiling season. 



Then the track goes down with a great dip, along which we 

 slip and slide in the mud to a deep broad stream. This is a 

 most picturesque spot, the junction of two bright rivers, and a 

 few native houses and a Chinaman's store are grouped close by 

 under some palms, with the customary loungers on horseback, 

 asking and receiving nnhou, or news, at the doors. Our accus- 

 tomed horses leaped into a ferry-scow provided by Government, 

 worked by a bearded female of hideous aspect, and leaped out 

 on the other side to climb a track cut on the side of a pre- 

 cipice, which would be steep to mount on one's own feet. 

 There we met parties of natives, all flower-wreathed, talking and 

 singing, coming gaily down on their sure-footed horses, saluting 

 us with the invariable "Aloha" Every now and then we 

 passed native churches, with spires painted white, or a native 

 school-house, or a group of scholars all ferns and flowers. The 

 greenness of the vegetation merits the term " dazzling." We 

 think England green, but its colour is poor and pale as com- 

 pared with that of tropical Hawaii. Palms, candlenuts, ohias, 

 hibiscus, were it not for their exceeding beauty, would almost 

 pall upon one from their abundance, and each gulch has its 

 glorious entanglement of breadfruit, the large-leaved ohia or 

 native apple, a species of Eugenia {Eugenia Malaccensis), and 

 the pandanus, with its aerial roots, all looped together by large 

 sky-blue convolvuli and the running fern, and is marvellous 

 with parasitic growths. 



The unique beauty of this coast is what is called gulches — 



