LETTER IX.] 



A FOREST PARADISE. 



Si 



two elder boys. We rode in the mauka direction, outside cane 

 ready for cutting, with silvery tassels gleaming in the sun, till 

 we reached the verge of the forest, where an old trail was 

 nearly obliterated by a trailing matted grass four feet high, and 

 thousands of woody ferns, which conceal streams, holes, and 

 pitfalls. When further riding was impossible, we tethered our 

 horses and proceeded on foot. We were then 1,500 feet above 

 the sea by the aneroid barometer, and the increased coolness 

 was perceptible. The mercury is about four degrees lower for 

 each 1,000 feet of ascent — rather more than this indeed on the 

 windward side of the islands. The forest would be quite im- 

 penetrable were it not for the remains of wood-hauling trails, 

 which, though grown up to the height of my shoulders, are still 

 passable. 



Underneath the green maze, invisible streams, deep down, 

 made sweet music, sweeter even than the gentle murmur of the 

 cool breeze among the trees. The forest on the volcano track, 

 which I thought so tropical and wonderful a short time ago, is 

 nothing for beauty to compare with this "garden of God." I 

 wish I could describe it, but cannot ; and as you know only 

 our pale, small-leaved trees, with their uniform green, I cannot 

 say that it is like this or that. One might exhaust the whole 

 vocabulary of wonderment upon it. The former cutting of 

 some trees gives atmosphere, and the tumbled nature of the 

 ground shows everything to the best advantage. There were 

 openings over which huge candle-nuts, with their pea-green 

 and silver foliage, spread their giant arms, and the light played 

 through their branches on an infinite variety of ferns. There 

 were groves of bananas and plantains with shiny leaves 8 feet 

 long, like enormous hart's-tongue, the bright-leaved noni, the 

 dark-leaved koa, the mahogany of the Pacific ; the great glossy- 

 leaved Eugenia — a forest tree as large as our largest elms ; the 

 small-leaved ohia, its rose-crimson flowers making a glory in 

 the forests, and its young shoots of carmine red vying with the 

 colouring of the New England fall ; and the laiihala drooped 

 its formal plumes, which creak in the faintest breeze ; and the 

 superb breadfruit hung its untempting fruit, and spreading guavas 

 displayed their ripe yellow treasures, and there were trees that 

 had surrendered their own lives to a conquering army of 

 vigorous parasites which had clothed their skeletons with an 

 unapproachable and indistinguishable beauty, and over trees 

 and parasites the tender tendrils of great mauve morning glories 

 trailed and wreathed themselves, and the strong, strangling 



