File:Sandwich island notes (1854) (14581907587).jpg

Identifier: sandwichislandno01bate (find matches)
Title: Sandwich island notes
Year: 1854 (1850s)
Authors: Bates, George Washington
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, Harper
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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e them all, like an Atlas, Waialeale rises to an elevationof four thousand feet, and is cloud-capped during a great partof the year. It would almost seem to be the abode of somediscarded Hawaiian deity, who had retired there to retain, ifpossible, his immortality ; throwing around its awful summitclouds, shadows, darkness, and mystery, and forbidding theapproach of mortals. From this clouded summit stretch loftyand rugged table-lands as far as the west and northwest sidesof the island, where they terminate in tremendous precipices,from one to four thousand feet high, pierced by immense cav-erns, into which roll the foaming waves of the Pacific. Fromthe summit of Waialeale, frequent and fertilizing showers arewafted over uplands, lowlands, plains, and valleys. Emphat-ically it may be said that these showers are the very life-blood of the soil. All around the island, streams—some ofwhich are noble rivers—may be seen rushing to the embraceof the treacherous and insatiate deep. Mllill
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KOLOA AND HARBOR. 157 My first landing-place on Kauai was Koloa, the most rug-ged district on the island. It is twelve miles long by fivebroad, and has a gradual rise as the interior is approached.Not much of the soil is under cultivation, nor can it be, forthe whole district is more or less covered with the heavy vol-canic stones once thrown out from the numerous volcanoes.It is said to derive its name from ko, cane, and loa, great orlong, referring to the large cane cultivated in that region.Since whalers have been in the habit of calling there to re-cruit for the Polar Seas, a strong spirit of competition has beeninduced among the natives. Koloa is seen to most advantageat a distance of two miles out at sea. The native housesscattered widely over the gradually ascending plains, the sug-ar-house on the Koloa sugar-plantation, the Mission Churchand school-house, and the lofty hills that bound the horizon,form a pleasant picture. The harbor is merely an open roadstead. Excepting theti

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