(Mr. Brigham in his valuable monograph
on the Hawaiian volcanoes quoted below, {138} appears as much
impressed with these gulches as I am.)
We lunched in one glorious valley, and Kaluna made drinking cups
which held fully a pint, out of the beautiful leaves of the Arum
esculentum. Towards afternoon turbid-looking clouds lowered over
the sea, and by the time we reached the worst pali of all, the south
side of Laupahoehoe, they burst on us in torrents of rain
accompanied by strong wind. This terrible precipice takes one
entirely by surprise. Kaluna, who rode first, disappeared so
suddenly that I thought he had gone over. It is merely a dangerous
broken ledge, and besides that it looks as if there were only
foothold for a goat, one is dizzied by the sight of the foaming
ocean immediately below, and, when we actually reached the bottom,
there was only a narrow strip of shingle between the stupendous
cliff and the resounding surges, which came up as if bent on
destruction. The path by which we descended looked a mere thread on
the side of the precipice. I don't know what the word beetling
means, but if it means anything bad, I will certainly apply it to
that pali.
A number of disastrous-looking native houses are clustered under
some very tall palms in the open part of the gulch, but it is a most
wretched situation; the roar of the surf is deafening, the scanty
supply of water is brackish, there are rumours that leprosy is rife,
and the people are said to be the poorest on Hawaii.
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