The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-06-13
BERKELEY STUDENTS
SCIENTIFIC TREAT.
Continued from First Page.)

The fourth mountain is still smaller
and much older than any of the others
at least it's volcanoes have been much
longer extinct. The side exposed to
the trade wind has cliffs 1000 to 1900
feet high, which seem to tell the story
of greatly prolonged wave action, yet
possibly may have different signifi-
canoe, of which 1 shall speak later. 1t
is noticeable that, even on this older
portion of the island, the waves from
the leeward have been almost power
less TO form cliffs.
No streams with force enough to
reach the sea exist on this side of the
mountain; numerous gullies, with
rocky sides and rOcky-not pebbly-
beds, show what can be done by the oc-
casiOnal action of torrents, which fol-
low the showers, soon leaving their
channel again dry. The other side of
the mountain, where the rainfall
amounts to at least 200 inches annu-
ally. and the rocks are kept saturated
with moisture, is cut into gorges whose
precipitous sides measure vertically
more than 1000 feet from top to bot
tom. There are peculiarities, however,
in some of these gorges that indicate
that they have not been the result sim
ply of stream erosion, to be mentioned
later
Maui, the next island in the group,
is a doublet, the eastern portion a gi-
ant mountain, HaIeakala, very similar
to Mauna Kea, and still more recently
extinct. Several of it's lava flows are
still as black and bare of vegetation as
that which in 1881 coursed down the
slope of Mauna Loa, staying it's prog
ress only at the outskirts of the town
of Hilo. The lava of these late ertp-.
tions of Haleakala may be 200 years
old, think not much more, but the
remarkable feature about the mountain
is it's colossal crater, nearly twenty
miles in circuit and 1000 feet deep
Standing on it's rim you look down
on the cfnder cones on it's floor and can
scarcely believe that these mere mole
hills are really small mountains, 400
to 500 feet in height
The mountain is like Mauna Kea, in
that its leeward side is arid and free
from valleys of erosion, while it's wind
ward side is densely forested and cut
deeply by numerous raYineS. Besides
these, however, there are two great
canyons on opposite sides OF the noun
tain, opening to the level of the bot
tom of it's crater above and reaching
quite to it's base, evidently not the
work of stream erosion. Here again
is something to be explained.
The western half of the island con-
sists of much smaller mountain, even
sleeper than Haleakala, but remarka-
BILE in being cleft nearly to it's base by
gorges whose precipitous sides are COW
cred with trees and shrubbery, the
mountain peaks shrouded almost per-
petually in cloud. Evidently erosion
has here done much work since the
volcano became extinct. but who ever
saw a mountain split thus to it's core
by mere erosion? The cliffs on the
windward exposure of coast are only
OF moderate height, perhaps 200 or 800
feet; the steepness of the slope should
favor the rapid encroachment of the
ocean; why has it done so little work
if the mountain is really so old?
The small islands of Lanai and Ka-
hooIawe have no especial features we
need to notice. Each has the usual
whaIeback FORM each shows bluffs |
on the side most exposed to the action |
of the waves. On Lanai, which is pro- |
tected from the trade wind by Maui |
and Molokai; this is on the west in |
stead of the east side.
Molokai consists of two VOLCANOES