Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1898-06-22
Kaena Point Rich in History and
Natural Curiosities.

At kaena Point the excursion
train was stopped for nearly half
an hour, to enable those who wished
to tramp over the sand dunes to
the point proper, where it was
promised they would see a sight
that would repay them for the ex-
ertion in the hot sun. Only four
ventureSome ones took the tramp,
but they considered themselves
more fortunate than those who re-
manned in the train. In a little
valley among the sand hills was
found what one of the party de-
scribed as "sand bushes" There
were numberlesS trunks, branches
and branchlets that indeed looked
not unlike bushes. The "bushes"
were clearly made of sand, which
in some way had become hard as
stone and stood firmly in their bed
of loose, drifting sand. But what
had caused this freak? Each trunk
and branch was found to be
cylindrical, and this probably ex-
plains how the bushes were formed.
At some unknow time in the past,
MISUNDERSTANDING insects or ami
mails had evidently burrowed down
in the sand bank, the tunnel, or
rather well, thus made being kept
from caving in by the Shiny coating
given it by the animal. In the
course of time this lining became
adamantine, and then the wind and
the rain shifting and washing away
the loose sand from about the ami
mails deep well-like home, the
result has been what the excursion
lists found-Sand bushes. Among
the same sand dunes many pretty
shells were found. But the sight
worth the trouble of the tramp was
the cape, or point itself, with its
great expense of sharp lava rocks
over which the surf was rolling,
there being an occasional angry
splash as some quarrelsome wave
struck against an unyielding lava
barrier.
There was monument at Kaena
Point that told of an almost for
gotten pasta smooth road built
across the rough lava and out into
the water. Undoubtedly it served
as boat landing for ancient Ha-
waiian fishermen. The mention of
this surf road brought out the state
ment from one of the excursionists
that the coast from kaena Point to
Waialua was the best fishing
"ground" to be found anywhere
around the Islands, and that many
years ago there was dense popu-
lation of native fishermen living
close to the shore along this same
stretch of coaStway-as the occa-
Sional trace of what had formerly
been stone fences bounding the
little homeSteads indicated.
GLORIOUS things have happened
in some places on these Islands"
said the historian of the excurSionists.
81 can show you places now covered
with stones that were formerly
stoneless taro patches"
"What happened : was the soil
washed away by floods, leaving the
rocks exposed ?"
"No; the stones rained down
That is no josh. There have been
showers of big stones, in a few
places, that have covered up and
ruined cultivated fields. You don't
believe it; but it is So"
These glimpseS of an unchronicled
past lent interest to the occasion as
the excursion train sped backwards
through what at one time was per-
haps populous village, now moth
ing but a stretch Of rocky beach
country; there was no occasion to
question the authenticity of the
history too closely. From Kaena
Point, until Waialua is reached, the
train runs in an exactly opposite
direction from that in which it starts