a scorching shore, and bare red volcanic hills, looking like well-baked bricks, all the redder because of the burning sun which blazed so pitilessly on land and sea.

From this point we obtained what I suppose I must call a fine view of the three great volcanoes, so grouped as to form a triplet of domes, though in truth the use of the word domes will surely mislead you, if you allow yourself to think of an architectural dome, or such decided forms as the mighty granite domes of California. These are literally much more like the jelly-fish you see lying on the seashore ;-for although their respective heights are, Mauna Kea, 13,950 feet; Mauna Loa, 13,760; Mauna Hualalei, 8,500 feet; yet they spring from so vast a base, and ascend at slopes so gradual, as effectually to deceive the eye. Certainly Mauna Loa, which appears in the centre of the group, is distant forty miles, and Hualalei about thirty miles, but the atmosphere is so bright and clear that you cannot believe in their distance, any more than in their height. I confess I found it difficult to admit the grandeur of the subject, for a more unlovable scene than that presented by these three dull curves I never beheld.

The island of Hawaii rises from the waves like a vast fortress, ninety miles in length, entirely built up by the Fire Genii, whose materials have been lava of every description. The centre of the isle is a most desolate high plateau, from which rise the three great volcanoes, the ever active Mauna Loa, and the extinct or dormant Mauna Kea and Hualalei. The general aspect of this land is, to my mind, most dreary; yet, as we have seen, wherever water can be obtained, there this desert becomes fertile, and so great sugar-estates have sprung up; there are also large cattle ranches and sheep-runs, and thousands of wild cattle roam at large through the forest belt which clothes the lower slopes of the mountains.

Of these, vast herds are literally wild-the descendants of those brought here by Vancouver, and turned out to increase and multiply under state protection. They are now so fierce that the natives stand in considerable awe of them and give them a wide berth in the forest, where they are said to do considerable damage to the timber.

Besides these purely wild herds there are immense numbers which have nominal owners, who at some period or other contrive to drive them into a corral, and brand them with their own mark. Some of these ranchmen have runs upwards of twenty miles in length, and are nominal owners of from ten to fifteen thousand head of cattle.

It is no child's play to collect a drove of these creatures, who when hunted, are half maddened by fear. So it is no wonder that an

average of fifty horses a year are gored to death in this dangerous but most exciting work-sport, I may call it, for no form of sport can be wilder or more exciting than that of galloping for hours in pursuit of an infuriated herd of raging dangerous beasts, the finest of which are singled out and captured by means of skilfully thrown lassoes. Then, indeed, comes the tug of war, might against might, the captive bullock dashing madly to and fro, rushing at the horses, who, well trained to their parts, evade his charge with almost miraculous skill, till after a prolonged struggle the poor savage is exhausted, and his captors succeed in drawing him up to some point of vantage where they can give him the coup de grâce.

Sportsmen are looking forward to a day when the deer forests of Hawaii shall become a reality, nor is there any reason why they should not do so. Deer have been turned out on the vast slopes of Mauna Loa, and there seems every reason to expect that they will increase and multiply just as the cattle have done.

Of these, multitudes are shot, merely for the sake of their hides, the value of their flesh being infinitesimal, owing to the difficulty of carrying or preserving it in hot weather. It does seem so pitiful to think of the unfed multitudes to whom this good beef would be such a boon.

Less exciting property are the great sheep-runs on the slopes of Mauna Kea on high breezy pastures. Of course they do not compare in figures with the huge flocks of "The Colonies." Still, a man who owns from twenty to thirty thousand sheep has a fair claim to rank high in the pastoral community. The wool export varies considerably for better or worse, from year to year. The latest on which I have any report is that of 1878, when this little group exported 522,757 pounds.

At present, however, all golden visions centre in sugar. In the way of business little else is talked of. The relative value of different kinds of cane, the density of their sap, the ravages of rats, or of insects, the rise and fall of the American market, these are the topics of chief interest in the isles.

Leaving the coast of Hawaii, we steamed for several hours across the channel dividing it from the Isle of Maui, which, seen from the sea, is a pile of red, scorched-looking, bare volcanic hills, seamed with what have once been rivers of molten lava, and are now beds of black, rugged, cruel-looking rock, lying in horrid masses for miles along the shore. These are old lava flows. Between them lie stretches of the blackest lava sand, with here and there a bank of white coral sand, and the only representatives of vegetation are the mournful

pandanus with its blue-green drooping leaves, or that most repellent of all tropical plants, the weird grey prickly pear. We called at several small ports, consisting merely of a few poor-looking wooden houses and a group of native huts scattered over the volcanic cinderheaps. We knew they were only the points for shipping the produce of pleasanter and more fertile spots, but they themselves appeared howlishly dreary.

The Isle of Maui is in the form of a double-bottle gourd. It has apparently been built by the action of two distinct volcanoes, whose overflowings have met, and formed a wide, low isthmus connecting the two mountain masses, which form East and West Maui. This isthmus is the great new sugar-plain which the good Water Kelpies are now transforming from a wilderness of choking sand into a rich alluvial soil.

West Maui consists of the heap of barren hills aforesaid, where groups of small craters mingle with the black bed of ancient lava streams-the very type of ghastly desolation; yet rent by a series of deep gorges, each hiding within its ghastly walls a picturesque stream, with surroundings of rich foliage.

East Maui consists of one vast dome-shaped mountain, ten thousand feet high, but rising at the same very gentle angle as the volcanoes of Hawaii. As seen from the isthmus, not the slightest dent in the smooth curve of that great summit betrays the site of the vast extinct crater which lies within it-a crater upwards of twenty miles in circumference—some authorities say thirty milesand two thousand feet in depth, and having within its deep basin sixteen secondary craters, some of which form mountains six hundred feet in height. The view to be obtained from the brink of that huge crater is altogether unique, and more resembles the photographs of the moon's disc, as seen through a powerful telescope, than any terrestrial scene. Possibly the old Hawaiians may have had some such thoughts, for they called it Haleakala, the House of the Sun.

But for the present our interests are confined to the lower earth. The steamer lay to, off Maalea Bay, and we were landed on its dismal shore. An hour's drive along the base of the great sunscorched hills of West Maui (the Mauna Eka range) showed us something of the isthmus, which lay outstretched before us-a dreary expanse of arid, disintegrated lava. Already, however, that wild waste of unproductive dust had been partially irrigated, and the barren wilderness was bordered by rich fields of sugar-cane.

Truly lovely were those green canes, with their tassels at once rosy and silvery, resembling the blossom of some giant grass, and

the broad leaves waving gently in the breezy sunlight. The fields are hedged with the prickly pear, which attains a height of about twenty feet, with stems upwards of a foot in diameter, and becomes a very handsome though grotesque shrub. As we advanced, we saw indications of the beauty which the inhabitants of Maui ascribe to their beloved isle. We caught glimpses of green valleys hidden in the deep chasms which have rent the fiery hills. But we were scarcely prepared for the beauty of Waikapu, which, deriving its name from the river, is the headquarters of a hospitable sugarplanter, who welcomed us to a most comfortable New England home, in a lovely tropical garden, which, by contrast with its surroundings, appeared to us simply a Paradise. Beautiful imported trees overshadowed its smooth green lawn, and a group of pretty children were playing joyously among thickets of bright blossom. The house proved as pleasant as its garden—a pretty, well-ordered home. Just below it are grouped all the buildings connected with the estate— the overseers' and workmen's houses and offices.

A little farther lies the pretty village of Wailuku, with its large Hawaiian (Congregational) church, and a tiny English Episcopal chapel. It also derives its name from a very beautiful river. Here several descendants of the original mission families have made for themselves pleasant homes, embowered in shady gardens; and all with one accord believe that the wide world does not contain another spot so beautiful as the Iao Valley, with its strange rock-pinnacles and wealth of rich foliage. I unfortunately failed to penetrate to the Upper Valley, as several days of heavy rain brought down the Wailuku river in heavy spate, and each tributary was swollen to a turbid flood, the mad rushing waters obliterating every indication of the accustomed fords.

At Wailuku we hired a capital express team (namely, a sort of double dog-cart), and started on a drive of ten or twelve miles across the isthmus. The weather was greatly in our favour, for here the slightest breath of wind raises such clouds of blinding sand as usually makes this part of the expedition a matter of dread. On the present occasion all was dead calm; not the faintest breeze stirred, and, though the heat was grilling, we knew that it was far better than if there had been even a breath of air. Our route lay along the sea beach, where great green waves rolled in, in long lazy swell, and broke in booming thunder on the yellow sands, the white surf flashing as far as the eye could see along the level shore. The distant sea and hills were of a heavenly blue, while the near sandhills were of every shade of orange and rust colour. I never saw such rich colouring in sand.

There is no road across this isthmus of ever-shifting volcanic dust, where each day's changes obliterate the faint landmarks of those preceding it; so we followed devious cart-tracks, and meandered in somewhat erratic fashion among the desert sand heaps, which are scarcely tinged by a poor scanty vegetation. It was a great inspiration when first a far-sighted American, Mr. Claus Spreckels, of San Francisco, determined to find means whereby to irrigate this wide plain of worthless dust, which only needed the magic touch of water to be transformed into the richest and most fertile soil. So he formed a great sugar-growing company, and dug great ditches, and carried on his irrigation works so systematically, that already the isthmus has become one vast sugar-field.

Many and great were the difficulties to be surmounted, for though there were streams rushing down various gulches on the flank of Haleakala, it involved difficult engineering to divert these from their natural seaward course, and lead them through the forests and across the countless ravines which seam the mountain side. This was accomplished by the erection of great flumes, i.e. wooden aqueducts, and in some places the water is led across these, through very large pipes, while at the Maliko Gulch it was found best to carry the pipes to the bottom, lead them across the ravine, a distance of five hundred yards, and up the other side.

The water pressure here is so enormous that the ingenuity of the engineers was taxed to the utmost to find means of strengthening the pipes, and enabling them to resist the tremendous force of sudden floods; but so well has the work been accomplished that a waterconduit, thirty miles in length, has been constructed, and by an almost imperceptible grade, nowhere exceeding twelve feet in a mile, the precious, fertilising streams are now carried to bring drink to the thirsting soil and wealth to the planters. I am told that these irrigation works have involved an outlay of £20,000, but that the result has already proved the wisdom of the expenditure. Not only did the plantations on the mountain side at once profit largely, but in an incredibly short space of time a green expanse of three thousand acres of rich sugar-cane sprang up in the midst of the wilderness of red dust―a green oasis in the desert, and an earnest of its speedy extension. Now two large mills have been constructed, to crush the cane on the spot, and a tramway has been laid from Wailuku, along which run trawleys laden with produce. This is the first railway of the Hawaiian kingdom.

Having crossed the isthmus, following a somewhat intricate course to avoid the new ditches, where busy squads of men were hard at