The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1905-02-21


how. in the operation of the doctrines
of evolution and the survival Of the tit
test such combination of voice and
ears to hear DO could have developed.
m Eau I found % residen. who keeps
stock of fire crackers loo his home to
scare these birds away If beneath this
mans window the soft calm of the mid
night moon be disturbed by the pene-
tratiug hees and haws he knows so
WELL he sits up in his nightshirt, sets
fire to "a bunch of crackers and throws
them out of his window. Then an eX-
plosion, mingled with the sounds Of ac-
tive hoofs and the rest is silence.
The natives of Kau have "A story in
which the nightingale plays some
part, about the days of Captain Cook
whose monument at Kealakekua bay is
one Of the sights of the coast. 1t stands
on a tiny bit of level lowland on the
edge of boy of extraordinary heat
and beauty, as we'll as depth. Remem-
bering the current history which says
that natives waded out and killed the
captain near this spot l decided that
they did not wade far, for the water
very quickly becomes of indigo ocean
depth. 1t was somewhere near this
spot that some of the first white men
whose landings are well known came
ashore and brought to the islands the
first jackasses, the first bullock and the
first horses ever seen in Hawaii. 1t is
of the arrival of these animals that the
Kau story is told. The fame of the
wonderful white man soon travelled
far and wide and many were the Ha-
waiians who journeyed long distances
to see them. OF these Hawaiians there
were two middle aged gentlemen of
limited knowledge and experience, who
set out together to see the wonderful
haole. Approaching the shore near
where the strangers boats were, they
encountered a jackass, the first ever
landed, forefather of the thousands
now patiently browsing on Kona and
Kau slopes. Both the natives stopped,
stupefied with amazement. They gaz-
ed into the calm, solemn brown eyes
under the monstrous, unprecedented
ears of the new arrival and with one
accord declared him the most extraor-
binary specimen of the human race
they had ever seen.
Aloha oe," said a Hawaiian, and one
of the unearthly ears jerked back
quickly. There was no other answer,
but the continued jackass stare of I'M
speakable wisdom. Aloha" again said
one of the puzzled Hawaiians and per-
haps he added, Funny kind haole." At
any rate he moved to the other end"
and after what followed both natives
stood at a respectful distance 1t APP
pears, according to the story, that real
white men arrived in time to correct
the queer mistake. That is the end of
whom is and was the joke?
Aside from comments on the beauty
Of the Enthusiastically cocoanuts-which
wave over every village; on the rich
green of the mountain slopes in some
parts and their Death Valley like bar
renness in others; on the calmness Of
the sea and sky, there is one remark
which appears to be made by most Wis
itors, with frequent illusions to the
place called He'll. 1t is about the days
when Nature was making this wonder
full coast line. What must have been
the scene when the molten earth and
the sea had their long battle-ending in
the comparative silence of earth for
thousands of years while the sea al
most Intellectually but increasingly con-
tinued to beat against it's boundaries!
Many other coast lines of earth may
have been formed the same way, but in
ages so long past that rocks have be-
come soil and SAND and the signs of the
conflict are invisible or seen only by
the eye of the expert. Here, in places,
though the fury of the encounter an
tedates all history and tradition, it
seems as if it were but yesterday when
the great mountains rolled forward up
on the sea and stopped all along that
jagged edge. 1t would be impossible
for the widest imagination to exagger-
ate the scene
Few people appreciate the immensity
of Mauna Loa Her thirteen thousand
feet of elevation entitle her to respect
among the worlds mountains, but her
activity and her bulk probably place
her at the head of all. For volcanic
activity Vesuvius has always had more
fame and ten people have travelled to
see Vesuvius for every one who has
journeyed to Mauna Loa and her side
issue of Kilauea. Yet an American
scientist who visited Hawaii's volcano
few years ago wrote that in a single
eruption, Mauna Loa usually emits
more material and shows vaster activ-
dty than all the actions of Vesuvius
combined since the days of Pompeii!
Mauna LOa begins far out at sea and
ascends with slopes lined with long
SUGGESTIONS of the most extensive mod
ern lava flows to height where snow
can live in the tropics.
On the vast plains of this mountain
and its surrounding country one seems
TO see the very work of earth-maklne
In a dozen of its stages,-from the
black wastes of recent lava that gives
life to no shrub or blade of grass, ia
the fertile garden spots, soiled with
the detritus of ages untold and fertile
ed with the rotted and absorbed vege-
tation of centuries beyond our compu.
tation. One may see spots where, In
the lava the hardest of vegetation has
just begun to get a footing, as in XII.