THROUGH HAWAII. 
175 
would probably have been the most fertile nnd beauti¬ 
ful part of the island, had it not been overflowed by 
floods of lava. It is joined to Kohala, a short distance 
to the southward of TWaihae bay, and extends along 
the western shore between seventy and eighty miles, 
including the irregularities of the coast. The northern 
part, including Kairua, Kearake’kua, and Honaunau, 
contains a dense population; and the sides of the moun¬ 
tains are cultivated to a considerable extent; but the 
south part presents a most inhospitable aspect. The 
population is thin, consisting principally of fishermen, 
who cultivate but little land, and that at the distance 
of from five to seven miles from the shore. 
The division of Kaii commences at Kaulanamauna, 
runs down to the south point of the island, and stretches 
about forty miles along the south-east shore. On enter¬ 
ing it, the same gloomy and cheerless desert of rugged 
lava spread itself in every direction from the shore to 
the mountains. Here and there at distant intervals 
they passed a lonely house, or a few wandering fisher¬ 
men’s huts, with a solitary shrub, or species of thistle, 
struggling for existence among the crevices in the blocks 
of scoriae and lava. All besides was “ one vast desert, 
dreary, bleak, and wild.” 
In many places all traces of a path entirely disap¬ 
peared; for miles together they clambered over huge 
pieces of vitreous scoriae, or rugged piles of lava, 
which, like several of the tracts they had passed in 
Kona, had been tossed in its present confusion by 
some violent convulsion of the earth. 
From the state ol the lava covering that part of the 
country through which we have passed, we should be 
induced to think that eruptions and earthquakes had 
