The record-union., 1892-10-17
WAIKIKI BEACH
Delights of Surf Bathing in the Hawaii
Islands.

Islands.
The writer spent several months at a
cottage by the sea at Waikiki Hawaii, d
cottage built by one of the Judges of the
supreme Court for his summer residence.
a description of this cottage will answer
for nearly all similar ones along the
beach. a two-story frame, the lower
story fronting on the lawn between it and
the public highway with a veranda; the
second story with a veranda fronting on
The beach, kitchen i'll the near foreground
entirely separate, and fronting also the
sea. A tnft0t Qahn-niJ or one-story large
square room open on all sides, with cam
vas and mating hangings to keep out the
WIND and sun when necessary, but at all
times permitting the tree play of the trade
winds, is the spot where most of ones
time Is spent. Hammocks, easy chairs
and mating form about the only furni-
ture; at one side an arbor, over which
spreads the candent branches Of the hau
tree, quick-growing, densely-leaved
tree brought down from the mountain
gulches and trained for that purpose.
Here come tho natives i'll the bright
sunlight, i'll families, sometimes in
crowds, and they make the air ring with
their shouts and laughter as they enjoy
the surf. Such parties generally make a
day of it, going into the sea about 10 in
the morning, coming out about l.. having
a (ltGu or feast in the sun, and going in
again perhaps in the afternoon and stay
Ing an hour or two longer. Their evil
dent enjoyment is contagious to the lazy
looker-on who swings idly in a hammock
watching them. One object of these bath
ing expeditions is to collect the edible
seaweeds which grow in the shallow
waters inside the reef. Of these there
are four species, brownish color, of differ
ent texture, two of which are much like
our Irish moss, the two others are some
what bitter. They are eaten raw, with
the taste of the salt water from which
they come as zest. This sea-food is
called ttnlU Qee-moo), and sometimes it is
found in the market for sale. 1t is com
lcal to see men, women, boys and girls
standing on their heads in the water.
with their legs kicking in the air, while
they are down reaching and gathering
seaweeds, and 1 have counted a single
bather making more than 200 dives in the
course of his bath. They of course pull
up large quantity OF other species of
seaweeds which they do not save, and
these are thrown up on the beach by the
next incoming tide, forming quite a
winGrow.
One Of the delights of the Waikiki
beach and It's reefs to naturalist is its
wealth of marine life. One can safely
wade, in rubber boots, sometimes half
mile out on them at low. tide. and with
the hands or net can gather many
strange creatures. After the kORd or
storm from the south l found the beach
almost lined with little wrecked Portu-
guese men-of-war, o tiny, bladder-lil<e
vessel, iridescent,, with all colors of the
rainbow, from the lower edge of which
hung tiny cords of deep blue, which are
really the little colonies of individuals
making up the creature. To my cost I
found that there was sting even in such
tiny creatures. for these little cords, when
touching the skin, leave painful itching
which lasts for hours. In the same storm
came ashore many IdathfadS, so-called
violet snails, a curious violet colored shell,
a HeterOpOd, which lives in the open
ocean far from land, floating aperture up
ward at the mercy of the winds and waves.
and delicate as film. This creature laws
eggs, in each of which can be seen per-
fectly formed shell, number of which are
gathered together in little float or raft
looking something like a flattened mass
of tiny soap bubbles, and it seems as if
the lite OF this creature was devoted to
towing this raft through the waters of the
great ocean until Its. young can take care
of themselves. The shell fauna of the
beach is not very great nor very inter-
esting, but occasionally on the reefs can
be found living cone shells of three or
four species, two or three small species of
Trltons or trumpet shells, and occa-
sionally a beautiful bubble shell (Ha-
n,inea), delicate as tissue paper, banded
in black and pink and white, one of the
most beautiful of cabinet shells.
AT Waikiki one can stretch himself
lazily on the sand and with reading-glass
and a forcep pick up myriads of tiny
shells-no bigger than the grain of sand
in many colors and forms. These
probably find their homes on the sea-
weeds which grow SO freely in the shall
low waters inside the reefs and are dis
lodged when the natives pull up and de-
Free Press.