The Hawaiian Archipelago - Six Months Among The Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, And Volcanoes Of The Sandwich Islands By Isabella L. Bird
- Page 61 of 466 - First - Home
There Is A Saying Among Sailors, "Follow A Pacific
Shower, And It Leads You To Hilo." Indeed I Think They Have A
Rainfall Of From Thirteen To Sixteen Feet Annually.
These deep
verandahs are very pleasant, for they render window-blinds
unnecessary; so there is nothing of that dark stuffiness which makes
indoor life a trial in the closed, shadeless Australian houses.
Miss Karpe, my travelling companion, is a lady of great energy, and
apparently an adept in the art of travelling. Undismayed by three
days of sea-sickness, and the prospect of the tremendous journey to
the volcano to-morrow, she extemporised a ride to the Anuenue Falls
on the Wailuku this afternoon, and I weakly accompanied her, a burly
policeman being our guide. The track is only a scramble among rocks
and holes, concealed by grass and ferns, and we had to cross a
stream, full of great holes, several times. The Fall itself is very
pretty, 110 feet in one descent, with a cavernous shrine behind the
water, filled with ferns. There were large ferns all round the
Fall, and a jungle of luxuriant tropical shrubs of many kinds.
Three miles above this Fall there are the Pei-pei Falls, very
interesting geologically. The Wailuku River is the boundary between
the two great volcanoes, and its waters, it is supposed by learned
men, have often flowed over heated beds of basalt, with the result
of columnar formation radiating from the bottom of the stream. This
structure is sometimes beautifully exhibited in the form of Gothic
archways, through which the torrent pours into a basin, surrounded
by curved, broken, and half-sunk prisms, black and prominent amidst
the white foam of the Falls.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 61 of 466
Words from 16552 to 16836
of 127766