Page:Hawaii past and present (IA hawaiipastpresen00cast).pdf/218

 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT

the Island. After leaving Paia the road passes through the rich, rolling country of Haiku, thickly planted with pineapples. Beyond Huelo there is and excellent paved trail following the line of the ditch through the wild jungle of this, the wettest part of the Island. It winds in and out, always at an elevation of from 3,000 to 2,000 feet, following the contours of the ragged gulches which cut into the mountain from the sea. Often it is actually blasted out of the sides of precipices where one looks down a sheer 1,000 feet to the valley bottoms, with the sea beyond. The Keanac Valley, inhabited only by Hawaiians and, until the trail was built, accessible only from the sea, leads up into the Koolau gap and into the crater of Haleakala. The ascent is gradual, leading through magnificent scenery and splendid, untouched native forests. On either side of the gap, at the entrance to the crater, the precipices tower ruggedly thousands of feet into the air, forming the stately gateway through which the Fire Goddess left her ancient home. A few miles beyond this valley the trail, still winding along the precipices and crossing gulches at their narrow upper ends, always through beautiful tropical growth, reaches Nahiku, the centre of the new Hawaiian rubber industry.* From here around the eastern end of the Island there is a good carriage road, part of it following the line of a


 * The rubber industry was found to be a failure.