The Hawaiian Archipelago - Six Months Among The Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, And Volcanoes Of The Sandwich Islands By Isabella L. Bird
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A Handsome Owl, Called The Owl-Hawk, Is Common.
There Is A Paroquet With Purple Feathers, Another With Scarlet, A
Woodpecker with variegated plumage of red, green, and yellow, and a
small black bird with a single yellow feather under
Each wing.
There are few singing birds, but one of the few has as sweet a note
as that of the English thrush. There are very few varieties of
moths and butterflies.
The flora of the Hawaiian Islands is far scantier than that of the
South Sea groups, and cannot compare with that of many other
tropical as well as temperate regions. But all the islands are rich
in cryptogamous plants, of which there is an almost infinite
variety.
Hawaii is still in process of construction, and is subject to
volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tidal waves. Hurricanes are
unknown, and thunderstorms are rare and light.
Under favourable circumstances of moisture, the soil is most
prolific, and "patch cultivation" in glens and ravines, as well as
on mountain sides, produces astonishing results. A Kalo patch of
forty square feet will support a man for a year. An acre of
favourably situated land will grow a thousand stems of bananas,
which will produce annually ten tons of fruit. The sweet potato
flourishes on the most unpromising lava, where soil can hardly be
said to exist, and in good localities produces 200 barrels to the
acre. On dry light soils the Irish potato grows anyhow and
anywhere, with no other trouble than that of planting the sets.
Most vegetable dyes, drugs, and spices can be raised.
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