The mirror., 1922-12-28
illwater, Minnesota Thursday December %, 1922.
lao VALLEY---HAWAH'S PARADISE
Selected

n NE of the first places the visitor in Honolulu is
\ caused to see is lao Valley, and Haleakala the
House of the Sun.
1t my good fortune says Harriet Gerthmann, to
be member of Prof George H. Barons Atlantic coast
party. Prof Barton, ex-president of the Appalachian
Club had been the geological survey in the Hawaiian
Islands thirynne years ago. Thus in his leadership
the knowledge of the kamaana old tmer blended into
the refreshing enthusiasm of the malhni (newcomer)
with the basic principles of geology background.
An evenings of six hours the Inter-Island
steamship, the Kauea, carried from Honolulu to
Lahaina West Maui Scarcely had paid our
respects and tossed aloha ove to the brown crater
promontory of Diamond Head, the noble landmark of
Honolulu, before pitched headong into Palo1o Chan
mel past the purple shores of Molokai left and
Lanai on right In the swirng currents among the
islands the Kilauea tub of boat. The lights of
the leper settlement Moloka flashed silent warning
through the dusk.
Suddenly we cast anchor in the black shadows off
Lahaina. At the foot of shaky ladder dories waited
for Big stawart Hawaiians almost black the
night swayed and fro in the lantern light and their
dipped silently into the water.
On the veranda of the Pioneer Hotel we gathered up
scattered wits with fresh draughts of mountain
The village of Lahana the oldest white settlement
the ands and possessed much of historic interest The
morning following arrival wandered through the
picturesque lanes and bypaths frnged with the graceful
cocoanut palms toward the red brown hills checkered with
the sunshiny green of sugar fields We found
selves below the spacious branches of the hau tree
(hisbscus tiaccus under which thousand peo
pie in the Congressional party seated In this little
old whaling port of the bloody days of Captain Cook
the Jail and the cemetery pointed to us as the
chief attractions.
AT the cemetery the family ombs of the great Hawaiian
7
tered around them the oven-like tombs of Maui
cheftans They built of coral rock much after
the fashion of the giant kns in Western clay fac
tories The tombs here and there garlanded with
brilliant flower wreaths>
Swiftly we motored around the rugged coast line of
West Maui brick red lava flows to the village of
Wailuku, the isthmus The in all its opal splendor
stretched far the horizon line our right Maui
like Oahu is double island with low, sandy isthmus
160 feet high connecting the and portions
On East Maui the mighty dome of Haleakala, one of
the largest extinct craters in the world 10000
feet above the and beckoned from beyond the
cloud belt The Hawaiian Interpretation of Haleakala is
"House of the Sum-" We found the mountain well named.
After brief rest in Wailuku we motored over the
isthmus past sugar and pineapple plantations and up
through the fragrant Australian blue gum eucalyptus
groves the gentle slopes of Haeakala In the little
crooked gulches breaking up the long stretches knots of
koa visited with the kuku, which called my
of light The kukui (aleurites moluccana) lighted up
the of the way places in guch and ravine with its
yellow green leaves busted with svery gray powder.
In the oden days the natives used for torches, the
oil for medicine, and with the of the burned nuts
they painted their CANOES
At Idlewilde 5000 feet above the sea, we mounted
ponies for the final climb the summit AT this place
Aourished the only synga bush found in the islands
rho11 of
footed cautious in the rocky gulches and spirited the
level spots. Our cavalcade of thirteen slowly mounted
the green slopes of the mountain (Pags Col ~