io8 



HA WAIL 



[letter XI, 



through it. When we reached the pall above it, we heard the 

 roaring of a torrent, and when we descended to its brink it 

 looked truly bad, but D. rode in, and I waited on the margin. 

 She got safely across, but when she was near the opposite side 

 her large horse plunged, slipped, and scrambled in a most 

 unpleasant way, and she screamed something to me which I 

 could not hear. Then I went in, and 



' ' At the first plunge the horse sank low, 

 And the water broke o'er the saddle bow : " 



but the brave animal struggled through, with the water up to 

 the top of her back, till she reached the place where D.'s 

 horse had looked so insecure. In another moment she and I 

 rolled backwards into deep water, as if she had slipped from a 

 submerged rock. I saw her fore feet pawing the air, and then 

 only her head was above water. I struck her hard with my 

 spurs, she snorted, clawed, made a desperate struggle, regained 

 her footing, got into shallow water, and landed safely. It was 

 a small but not an agreeable adventure. 



We went on again, the track now really dangerous from 

 denudation and slipperiness. The rain came down, if possible, 

 yet more heavily, and coursed fiercely down each pali track. 

 Hundreds of cascades leapt from the cliffs, bringing down 

 stones with a rattling sound. We crossed a bridge over one 

 gulch, where the water was thundering down in such volume 

 that it seemed as if it must rend the hard basalt of the palis. 

 Then we reached the lofty top of the great Hakalau gulch, the 

 largest of all, with the double river, and the ocean close to the 

 ford. Mingling with the deep reverberations of the surf, I 

 heard the sharp, crisp rush of a river, and of " a river that has 

 no bridge." 



The dense foliage, and the exigencies of the steep track, 

 which had become very difficult, owing to the washing away of 

 the soil, prevented me from seeing anything till I got down. I 

 found Deborah speaking to a native, who was gesticulating 

 very emphatically, and pointing up the river. The roar was 

 deafening, and the sight terrific. Where there were two shallow 

 streams a week ago, with a house and good-sized piece of 

 ground above their confluence, there was now one spinning, 

 rushing, chafing, foaming river, twice as wide as the Clyde at 

 Glasgow, the land was submerged, and, if I remember cor- 

 rectly, the house only stood above the flood. And, most fear- 

 ful to look upon, the ocean, in three huge breakers, had come 



