2 3 6 



HAWAII. 



[LETTER XXV. 



the natives used to live when they came up here to quarry a 

 very hard adjacent phonolite for their axes and other tools. 

 While the others poked about, I was glad to make it a refuge 

 from the piercing wind. Hundreds of unfinished axes lie round 

 the cave entrance, and there is quite a large mound of un- 

 finished chips. 



This is a very interesting spot to Hawaiian antiquaries. They 

 argue, from the amount of the chippings, that this mass of 

 phonolite was quarried for ages by countless generations of 

 men, and that the mountain top must have been upheaved, and 

 the island inhabited, in a very remote past. The stones have 

 not been worked since Captain Cook's day ■ yet there is not a 

 weather-stain upon them, and the air is so dry and rarified that 

 meat will keep fresh for three months. I found a mass of crystals 

 of the greenish volcanic glass, called olivine, imbedded in a 

 piece of phonolite which looked as blue and fresh as if only 

 quarried yesterday. 



We travelled for miles through ashes and scoriae, and then 

 descended into a dense afternoon fog ; but Mr. S. is a prac- 

 tised mountaineer, and never faltered for a moment, and our 

 horses made such good speed that late in the afternoon 

 we were able to warm ourselves by a gallop, which brought 

 us in here ravenous lor supper before dark, having ridden for 

 thirteen hours. I hope I have made it clear that the top of 

 this dead volcano, whether cones or ravines, is deep soft ashes 

 and sand. 



To-morrow morning I intend to ride the thirty miles to 

 Waimea with two native women, and the next day to go off on 

 my adventurous expedition to Hilo, for which I have bought 

 for $45 a big, strong, heavy horse, which I have named Kahele". 

 He has the poking head and unmistakable gait of a bullock- 

 horse, but is said to be " a good traveller." 



I. L. B. 



