HAWAIIAN GUIDE BOOK. 



39 



THE WAILUKU PASS AND VALLEY. 



The soil of the Wailuku Valley is very rich. Taro 

 is cultivated extensively and largely supplies the plan- 

 tations and surrounding country. This valley is full of 

 wonderful scenery ; formerly a crater, its fires are sup- 

 posed to he still not actually extinct, as steam cracks 

 have recently heen discovered in a lofty, remote, and 

 until recently unknown spot. Here is a field awaiting 

 some energetic explorer. A never failing stream flows 

 through this valley. But it is not the agricultural or 

 economical features that chiefly attract the traveler to 

 this spot. It is that to which- allusion has already heen 

 made — " the Pass." " Prospects more picturesque and 

 more awfully grand are seldom seen hy the most univer- 

 sal traveler. It is attended with much fatigue and some 

 danger, hut the tourist is amply repaid for all his toil. 

 The river Iao wends its way through it with a thousand 

 gentle murmurs among crags of fallen lava and wild 

 luxuriant tropical foliage." 



Up the " Pass " winds a narrow footpath over rock, 

 through wild grass and ferns, along the brink of tre- 

 mendous precipices. Here was fought one of those des- 

 perate battles of Kamehameha the Great, who by it 

 conquered Maui. Retreat was impossible. Limited 

 room for fighting rendered the conflict deadly. Face 

 to face, hand to hand, and those hands armed with 

 sharks' teeth, they fought until both victor and van- 

 quished rolled off the pali. So terrible was the carnage, 

 that the river was dammed with the slain ; baptizing the 

 peaceful Iao with the new name Wailuku, (water of 

 destruction.) It is called the " Battle of the precipice," 

 and the river at that point is named the Kepaniwai, or 



