of this and nothing more. A very frequent aspect of pahoehoe is the
likeness on a magnificent scale of a thick coat of cream drawn in
wrinkling folds to the side of a milk-pan. This lava is all grey,
and the greater part of its surface is slightly roughened. Wherever
this is not the case the horses slip upon it as upon ice.

Here I began to realize the universally igneous origin of Hawaii, as
I had not done among the finely disintegrated lava of Hilo. From
the hard black rocks which border the sea, to the loftiest mountain
dome or peak, every stone, atom of dust, and foot of fruitful or
barren soil bears the Plutonic mark. In fact, the island has been
raised heap on heap, ridge on ridge, mountain on mountain, to nearly
the height of Mont Blanc, by the same volcanic forces which are
still in operation here, and may still add at intervals to the
height of the blue dome of Mauna Loa, of which we caught occasional
glimpses above the clouds. Hawaii is actually at the present time
being built up from the ocean, and this great sea of pahoehoe is not
to be regarded as a vindictive eruption, bringing desolation on a
fertile region, but as an architectural and formative process.

There is no water, except a few deposits of rain-water in holes, but
the moist air and incessant showers have aided nature to mantle this
frightful expanse with an abundant vegetation, principally ferns of
an exquisite green, the most conspicuous being the Sadleria, the
Gleichenia Hawaiiensis, a running wire-like fern, and the exquisite
Microlepia tenuifolia, dwarf guava, with its white flowers
resembling orange flowers in odour, and ohelos (Vaccinium
reticulatum), with their red and white berries, and a profusion of
small-leaved ohias (Metrosideros polymorpha), with their deep
crimson tasselled flowers, and their young shoots of bright crimson,