The Hawaiian gazette., 1905-10-13

cane as It is brought in from the
Held on small cars, to the sugar as IL
Is sacked and loaded onto the cars,
to be shipped to New York to be re-
fined.
An interesting drive from the hotel
Is through the cane fields to the south
up to the Wahiawa plains. The road
winds along the ridges and through
gulches past the great reservoir before
mentioned in the Kankonahua gulch
to the settlement OF wahiawa. There
is located the largest pineapple can
merry in the Territory. Over 300 acres
Of growing fruit lie before the eye, a
sight purely tropical and very inter-
esting.
SEEING WONDERLAND.
Leaving this island, 1 will take you
on a trip to Wonderland. My sister,
Mrs. Bidgood, and myself embarked
on the little island steamer Kinau for
the island of Hawaii to visit the vol
| cano of Kilauea and the Puma district
The trip over on the Kinau was one
long to be remembered. We struck a
gale or, in other words. the gale struck
us, and the little boat did almost ev-
ierything but turn somersaults, and at
times we even thought she would do
that. But finally we reached our des-
tination, a number of hours late, but
well pleased to again set foot on solid
ground.
| We stayed in Hilo over night, taking
the early morning train for Glen
wood, from which place we staged It
to the Volcano house, reaching there a
IAfA
was short, we began explorations at
once, first visiting the Sulphur banks,
where we gathered a few sulphur
crystals. All around us were great
cracBs from which issued columns of
sulphur fumes and the rocks upon
which we were standing were quite
warm, some of them too much so for
comfort Some of this steam they
pipe to the hotel for hot sulphur steam
baths.
garb for the occasion, we set off for
the Fern forest, even though it was
pouring rain. However, If one should
wait for clear weather in this country
he would be liable to be disappointed
as 1t rains at the most unexpected
moment.
The Fern forest is certainly a thing
of rare beauty, covering hundreds of
acres and a perfect jungle of ferns. all
kinds and sizes, from very small
plants to great trees standing 80 to
40 feet in height. 1t is a quiet spot
the silence broken only by the sough-
ing of the trees, or the singing of
the many little birds, which make
their home here. One can wander at
will through this forest without any
fear of poisonous reptiles, there being
none on these islands. Another pleas
ing feature of this forest and a very
tempting one to me was the fruit to
be found there. On every hand were
those delicious red berries, very much
like thimble-berries. Then there is
another, the "Ohelo," or sacred ber-
ry. They are thus named, as no ma
tive would go down to the crater of
Kilauea without taking with him a
handful of these berries and throwing
them into the pit as an offering to Ma
dam Pele, the goddess of fire. y,
The following morning we wandered
over to the Koa forest, Tree Moulds
and the extinct crater of Kilauea Xxi.
1t Is from the Koa tree that great
many of the curios are made, and
also a great deal of furniture. 1t has
a very pretty grain, and takes a beau
tiful polish.
| The tree moulds are very interest
ing. In some prehistoric time, during
one of the eruptions from Mauna Loa,
the lava flowed down over this forest.
AS it came to the trees it flowed right
up them, covering them almost entire
ly. Later there came a mud flow,
burying the forest, and now there is
nothing left but these great holes, ce-
mented as 1t We're, with lava. The tree
itself has rotted long ago and but the
impression is left of the bark on the
| lava.
The extinct crater of Kilauea Xxi is
another of the wonderful sights to be
seen on this island. We stood on the
rim and looked down 900 feet to the
floor of this crater and could imagine
in a very weak way of it's one time
activity. The walls of this crater are
now covered with a thick underground
About 2:30 in the afternoon a party
of us young people. mounted on horses
left the Volcano house and began to
descend the steep, well-worn trail that
leads onto the brittle, lava floor of XII
lauea.
Impressed with the awful grandeur
of our surroundings, silence was more
eloquent than words. We went in In
dian file, the path being too narrow
to allow more than one We made oul
way slowly over this lava bed for q
distance of two and one-half miles
where We left our horses in a rocl
corral and we proceeded to the deeper
mysteries, where horses fear t.
tread"
We first wandered over to the Little
Beggar," which at one time was 6
spouting cone, then over to Madam
Pele's kitchen, from which ISSUED
clouds of sulphur fumes. then stopped
at the hot cracks, over which we
scorched some postal cards as souven.
IRIS. The heat coming from z these
cracks is very intense and many times
we were forced back and had to put
our cards on long sticks. We looked
down into some of the caves. but die
not venture down into them for vari
Gus reasons. or course, we would no
say We were afraid, but we thought
n hfu nd 20 Co..