letter XXIW.J AN EVENING RIDE. 



2l 7 



gallop wherever the ground admitted of it, die scenery be- 

 coming more magnificent as the dark, frowning mountains of 

 Hanalei loomed through the gathering twilight. 



But they were fifteen miles off, and on the way we came to a 

 broad, beautiful ravine, through which a wide, deep river glided 

 into the breakers. I had received some warnings about this, 

 tbut it was supposed tiiat we could cross in a ferry scow, of 

 which, however, I only found the bones. The guide and the 

 people at the ferryman's house talked long without result, but 

 eventually, by many signs, I contrived to get them to take 

 me over in a crazy punt, half full of water, and the horses 

 swam across. Before we reached the top of the ravine, the last 

 redness of twilight had died from off the melancholy ocean, 

 the black forms of mountains looked huge hi the darkness, and 

 the wind sighed so eerily through the creeking lauhalas, as to add 

 much to the effect. It became so very dark that I could only 

 just see my horse's ears, and we found ourselves occasionally 

 in odd predicaments, such as getting into crevices, or dipping 

 off from steep banks ; and it was in dense darkness that we 

 arrived above what appeared to be a valley with twinkling 

 lights, lying at the foot of a precipice, and walled in on all sides 

 but one by lofty mountains. It was rather queer, diving over 

 the wooded pali on a narrow track, with nothing in sight but 

 the white jacket of the native, who had already indicated that 

 he was at the end of his resources regarding the way, but just 

 as a river gleamed alarmingly through the gloom, a horseman 

 on a powerful horse brushed through the wood, and on being 

 challenged in Hawaiian replied in educated English, and very 

 politely turned with me, and escorted me over a disagree- 

 able ferry in a scow without rails, and to my destination, two 

 miles beyond. 



Yesterday, when I left, the morning was brilliant, and after 

 ascending the pali, I stayed for some time on an eminence 

 which commands the valley, presented by Mr. Wyllie to Lady 

 Franklin, in compliment to her admiration of its loveliness. 

 Hanalei has been likened by some to Paradise, and by others 

 to the Vale of Kaschmir. Everyone who sees it raves about 

 it. " See Hanalei and die," is the feeling of the islanders, and 

 certainly I was not disappointed, nor should I be with Paradise 

 itself were it even a shade less fair ! It has every element of 

 beauty, and in the bright sunshine, with the dark shadows on 

 the mountains, the waterfalls streaking their wooded sides, the 

 river rushing under kukuis and ohias, and then lingering lovingly 



