SANDWICH ISLANDS. 
107 
The irrigation of the grounds at Lahaina is managed 
with great care and skill. As it seldom rains in the bay, 
water is brought from the mountains in stone courses, which 
are carefully closed every evening; and each farmer has a 
right to irrigate his fields every fifth day. The pathways 
are usually along the stone canals. 
The huts of the common people are seldom more than 
ten feet long, eight feet wide, and six feet high; and 
through the very low door it is not unusual to see them 
crawl. They are only used as storehouses, or to sleep in 
during the cold season, for the kanakas or common people 
usually live out of doors under the shade of their bread¬ 
fruit-trees. We entered some of the huts, and found them 
tolerably neat; the floor laid with mats, and the simple 
utensils clean. 
About three-quarters of a mile from the beach the land 
rises abruptly, towering into mountains, three of which, im¬ 
mediately to the east of Lahaina, are computed to be five 
thousand feet in height. From the first swell of the rising 
ground almost to the summit a little sunburnt vegetation is 
intersected by deep and gloomy ravines, and frightful pre¬ 
cipices of bare black lava—and this is the general character 
of the lee-side of the island. 
From Lahaina the Islands of Ranai, Morokoi, and 
