We went off, as usual, in single file, the guide first, and Mr. G.
last. The track was passably legible for some time, and wound
through long grass, and small koa trees, mixed with stunted ohias
and a few common ferns. Half these koa trees are dead, and all,
both living and dead, have their branches covered with a long hairy
lichen, nearly white, making the dead forest in the slight mist look
like a wood in England when covered with rime on a fine winter
morning. The koa tree has a peculiarity of bearing two distinct
species of leaves on the same twig, one like a curved willow leaf,
the other that of an acacia.
After two hours ascent we camped on the verge of the timber line,
and fed our animals, while the two natives hewed firewood, and
loaded the spare pack-horse with it. The sky was by that time
cloudless, and the atmosphere brilliant, and both remained so until
we reached the same place twenty-eight hours later, so that the
weather favoured us in every respect, for there is "weather" on the
mountain, rains, fogs, and wind storms. The grass only grows
sparsely in tufts above this place, and though vegetation exists up
to a height of 10,000 feet on this side, it consists, for the most
part, of grey lichens, a little withered grass, and a hardy
asplenium.
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