I4§ 



HA WAIL 



[letter XV. 



wool in 1872.* Mr. S has also 1000 head of cattle and 



50 horses. 



The industry of Waimea is cattle raising, and some feeble 

 attempts are being made to improve the degenerate island 

 breed by the importation of a few short-horn cows from New 

 Zealand. These plains afford magnificent pasturage as well 

 as galloping ground. They are a very great thoroughfare. 

 The island, which is an equilateral triangle, about 300 miles- 

 in " circuit," can only be crossed here. Elsewhere, an im- 

 penetrable forest belt, and an impassable volcanic wilderness, 

 compel travellers to take the burning track of adamant which 

 snakes round the southern coast, when they are minded to go 

 from one side of Hawaii to the other. Waimea also has the 

 singular distinction of a road from the beach, which is traversed 

 on great occasions by two or three oxen and mule teams, and 

 very rarely by a more ambitious conveyance. There araj 

 few hours of day or night in which the tremulous thud 

 of shoeless horses galloping on grass is not heard in Waimea. ! 



The altitude of this great table-land is 2500 feet, and the 

 air is never too hot, the temperature averaging 64° Fahrenheit. 

 There is mist or rain on most days of the year for a short 

 time, and the mornings and evenings are clear and cool. Thoj 

 long sweeping curves of the three great Hawaiian mountains 

 spring from this level. The huge bulk of Mauna Kea without 

 shoulders or spurs, rises directly from the Waimea level on the 

 south to the altitude of 14,000 feet, and his base is thickly 

 clustered with tufa-cones of a bright red colour, from 300 to' 

 1000 feet in height. Considerably further back, indeed forty 

 miles away, the smooth dome of Mauna Loa appears very 

 serene now, but only thirteen years ago the light was so bril- 

 liant, from one of its tremendous eruptions, that here it was 

 possible to read a newspaper by it, and during its height, 

 candles were unnecessary in the evenings ! Nearer the coast, 

 and about thirty miles from here, is the less conspicuous dome 

 of the dead volcano of Hualalai. If all Hawaii, south of 

 Waimea, were submerged to a depth of 8000 feet, three nearly 

 equi-distant, dome-shaped volcanic islands would remain, thei 

 highest of which would have an altitude of 6000 feet. To the 

 south of these plains violent volcanic action is everywhere ap-j 

 parent, not only in tufa-cones, but in tracts of ashes, scoriae, 

 and volcanic sand. Near the centre there are some veryi 

 curious caves, possibly " lava-bubbles," which were used by the 

 * In 1875 tne export of wool had increased to 465,469 lbs. 



