4 HA W All AN O UIBE B OK. 



of a steamer gliding rapidly along their shores, no 

 scenery can be more picturesqne — their mountain tops 

 enveloped in clouds, or perhaps in winter, wrap- 

 ped in a mantle of snow ; mountain slopes broken into 

 enormous gulches, fern-clad, tree-clad, green with the 

 richest summer foliage, and sparkling with numerous 

 shining waterfalls and streamlets — they present the most 

 delightful picture imaginable. Approaching nearer to 

 the land, plantations of golden sugar-cane attract at- 

 tention at one station ; broad fields of velvety pasture- 

 land, dotted with cattle, transform the solitariness of 

 another into active life ; while groups of cocoanut palms 

 skirt the white coral shores, under whose shade may be 

 discovered, with a glass, the primitive dwellings of the 

 simple natives, themselves strolling on the beach, fish- 

 ing in the sea, or sporting in the surf. 



Vessels approaching Honolulu from the eastward, 

 generally run along the windward shores of Maui and 

 Molokai, and pass through the Oahu channel, not open- 

 ing the harbor till abreast of Diamond Head. As soon 

 as they are observed in the channel, often twenty-five 

 miles from port, they are telegraphed by the watchman 

 at the signal station on the ridge back of Diamond 

 Head, so that the pilot meets them between the har- 

 bor entrance and the above headland. 



The approach to Honolulu, as the steamer passes the 

 l'emarkable promontory called Diamond Head, and 

 opens to view the extensive cocoanut groves of Waikiki, 

 its pretty cottages dotting the shore, the shipping and 

 the city almost buried in foliage in the distance, with the 

 lofty background of serrated mountains and near fore- 

 ground of wind-combed, snow-crested breakers, curling 



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