The Hawaiian Archipelago - Six Months Among The Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, And Volcanoes Of The Sandwich Islands By Isabella L. Bird
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To The North It Was Like The Munster Thal, To The
South Altogether Volcanic.
The tropics had vanished.
There were
frame houses sheltered from the winds by artificial screens of
mulberry trees, and from the incursions of cattle by rough walls of
lava stones five feet high; a mission and court house, a native
church, much too large for the shrunken population, and other
indications of an inhabited region. Except for the woods which
clothe the hills, the characteristic of the scenery is baldness.
On clambering over the wall which surrounds my host's kraal of
dwellings, I heard in the dusk strange sweet voices crying rudely
and emphatically, "Who are you? What do you want?" and was relieved
to find that the somewhat inhospitable interrogation only proceeded
from two Australian magpies. Mr. S - - is a Tasmanian, married to a
young half-white lady: and her native mother and seven or eight
dark girls are here, besides a number of natives and Chinese, and
half Chinese, who are employed about the place. Sheep are the
source of my host's wealth. He has 25,000 at three stations on
Mauna Kea, and, at an altitude of 6000 feet they flourish, and are
free from some of the maladies to which they are liable elsewhere.
Though there are only three or four sheep owners on the islands,
they exported 288,526 lbs. of wool last year. {223} Mr. S - - has
also 1000 head of cattle and 50 horses.
The industry of Waimea is cattle raising, and some feeble attempts
are being made to improve the degenerate island breed by the
importation of a few short-horn cows from New Zealand.
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