THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 
I 7 I 
underwood. The incident was for me un mauvais quart d'heure; happily the other cattle I 
fell in with preferred the green meadow to the dusty highway. The danger was soon 
forgotten in admiration of the magic scene around. In this district of frequent rains, 
vegetation bears no trace of the scorching effect of tropical sunshine. Every leaf in this wide 
forest sparkled in the radiant light as fresh and as perfect in shape and hue as if it had just 
sprung into life. At Waiakea, are shown the remains of the artificial fish-ponds constructed 
in the reign of the former kings of Hawaii to keep up a supply for the royal table. 
Hilo has suffered at various times from the destructive effects of earthquake-waves, 
caused by the shocks which so frequently visit the opposite coast of South America. On 
the 7th November, 1837, the sea retired at the rate of five miles an hour, leaving a great 
portion of the harbour dry. The village was crowded with people, who had collected to attend , 
a religious meeting. They rushed to the beach to witness the novel sight; suddenly a gigantic 
wave came roaring towards them at a speed of from seven to eight miles an hour, and, rising 
twenty feet above high-water mark, dashed upon the beach with a noise like thunder. The 
people were buried in its flood ; houses, canoes, living creatures, in short, property of all kinds, 
were mingled in one common ruin. A similar catastrophe, though not attended with the loss 
of so many lives, occurred in the spring of 1868, twelve hours after the towns of Arequipa 
and Arica, on the coast of Peru, had been destroyed by an earthquake-wave. 
Since the visit of the “ Challenger,” Hilo has had another narrow escape from total 
destruction. Between four and five a.m. on the 10th of May, 1877, the day after the 
earthquake which laid Iquique in ruins, the sea suddenly receded, and returned with violence 
in the shape of an enormous wave, measuring about thirty-six feet from the trough to the 
crest. Entering the harbour of Hilo, the wave rolled in upon the shore and swept away the 
wharves and storehouses in the front part of the town. A small island in the harbour, 
named Cocoanut Island, was entirely submerged, and no trace left of the hospital which had 
stood on it. Our anchorage was close to this island, and had an earthquake-wave entered the 
harbour during our stay, our good ship would probably have been left high and dry among 
the trees and cottages of Hilo. On the opposite side of Hawaii, in Kealakekua Bay, the 
scene of Captain Cook’s death, the wave on the occasion last referred to measured thirty feet. 
On the 19th of August we bade farewell to Hawaii, The following day, when about 
thirty miles distant from the south-eastern extremity of that island, the soundings had 
already increased to 2875 fathoms, or 17,250 feet. If to this we add the height of 
Mauna Kea, 13,950 feet, we obtain the enormous height of 31,200 feet, or very nearly 
six Enelish miles, for the total elevation of the island of Hawaii above the bottom of 
the sea., which is more than double the height of Mont Blanc. The course of the 
“ Challenger" was nearly due south. Before crossing the Equator, we passed Manuel 
Rodrigues Reef, laid down in the chart in lat. ii° N., on the 26th August, and, on the 3rd 
September, Walker Islands, in lat. 4 0 N., but not near enough to verify their existence. The 
chart of the Pacific Ocean is strewn with islands, reels, and shoals, many of which have 
been inserted on doubtful authority, and which have, consequently, been omitted from the 
