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before each plate, drew out a sticky wad, and transferred it to the mouth with astonishing dexterity. Those not to the manner born clumsily imitated their example, but made rather a dribbling, messy failure of it. Onions were eaten liberally, and also sweet potatoes, with salted shrimps, which are placed upon the board alive by native Hawaiians at their luaus, and so devoured. It was a gay little entertainment, accompanied by laughing and hilarious conversation, all the guests talking at once, the. residents finding much amusement in the heroic efforts of the visitors to eat with their fingers and swallow the poi without a grimace. It will be remembered when more ceremonious and pretentious functions have long been forgotten.

Among the guests was Professor Albert Koebele, formerly of California. He was well known throughout the United States as an entomologist of the highest attainments. He had been formerly employed by the Agricultural Department in Washington, and in his professional capacity had travelled all over the world. The stories of his experiences in Tahiti and elsewhere in the South Seas were as marvellous as romance; for, though naturally diffident and retiring, he talked extremely well, with the encouragement of an appreciative audience. His greatest work was

the introduction of the Vedelia cardinalis from Australia into the orange and lemon orchards of California. This "lady-bird" preys upon the para

1894.]

BLIGHT AND PARASITES.

233

site known as the "scale-blight," which is so destructive to the orchards, and which it completely destroyed. This was an experiment of his own, and its success was due to his individual effort. He gave me an interesting account of it, having proceeded upon the theory, well known in natural history, that all living creatures have their enemies in parasites, and that it was only necessary to discover the natural enemy of the scale-blight. This he found in the lady-bird, of which there are many hundred species in Australia. It is a tiny beetle which hides in the bark of trees, and must be collected, a few at a time, so that the search for an ordinary supply is long and laborious. He told me

that he shipped five thousand in one box; they were frozen until they became torpid, and a small supply of scale-blight was placed in each box, for food in case the insect revived. When they reached their destination, they were simply turned loose in orchards where their services were required, and they fell upon the affected trees at once and rapidly cleared them. As Professor Koebele was a scientist, and not a politician, he was not able to cope with his political rivals, who conspired to prevent the success of his discovery. He left what was supposed to be a trustworthy agent in California, with implicit instructions as to the disposition of the beetles when they should be received. Instead of obeying orders the jealous agent permitted the entire first

shipment to die, and then reported in Washington that the experiment had been a failure. Fortunately Professor Koebele had sent a number of the beetles to friends who were fruit-growers, and these being saved proved the truth of his assertions. However, as is usual, while it has saved the Californian fruitgrowers thousands of dollars, the discoverer did not profit in any way by his labour. He was a slight, delicate-looking man, only forty-one years of age, with a clear olive complexion, fine regular features, and dark-brown eyes, refined in manner and appearance. He was subsequently employed by the Hawaiian Provisional Government at a salary of $5,000 per annum, and was about to set forth on an expedition to discover an enemy of the coffee-blight, which he felt sanguine that he would be able to find. I met him subsequently in Sydney, and went with him on one of his beetle-hunting expeditions in an orange plantation near Paramatta. His method there was to find a tree covered with blight upon which the beetles were feeding. An open umbrella was placed under the lower boughs, which were beaten with a walking-stick, shaking the insects. into the receptacle below. They were then scooped up, and placed in wide-mouthed vials, ready for the process of freezing. From Australia Professor Koebele expected to visit Ceylon, India, China, and Northern Africa.

THE

CHAPTER XX.

A LITTLE JOURNEY TO KILEAUEA.

HE very first question put to the tourist returning from the Hawaiian Islands is, "Did you see the volcano?" A reply in the negative is always disappointing, and the questioner invariably wonders why any one should have taken so long a journey only to miss its most interesting feature. It is consequently almost a matter of self-respect to be able to answer "Yes." I had had the first experience the previous year; now I should have the latter, and felt that fate had made amends.

Formerly the ascent was made by a rough trail on horseback; but within the past three years the Government has completed a fine road from Hilo to the crater, so that the journey, once so fatiguing, can now be made comfortably and conveniently in a day's time. Before the road was finished tourists were forced to carry with them not only food but bedding and fuel, spending the night at a rude half-way house, which furnished shelter only. The narrow track over the lava was so steep and rough that horses had to walk at a snail's pace the entire distance.

My friend Mrs. L— and I visited Kileauea in the month of February. We left Hilo immediately after breakfast upon a lovely tropical morning. For once the incessant downpour of rain had ceased, and we had a fine view of the snow-covered peaks of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea-peaks of dazzling crystal softly outlined against the deep-blue sky. We had booked our seats in the stage-coach, a dilapidated vehicle drawn by four gaunt horses in rather rusty harness, and driven by a bashful, good-natured Scotchman. In addition to taking charge of the luggage the driver obligingly distributed along the entire thirty miles of the route newspapers, letters, and parcels, and he was also the custodian of a good-sized box of joints and steaks, sent by the butchers in Hilo to their customers in the upland plantations. The steaks were deftly hooked to a crane by the roadside, or, with the joints, deposited upon a shelf in a box out of reach of hungry animals. Occasionally the black-eyed Hawaiian cook, displaying two rows of white teeth in an amiable smile, would suddenly appear out of the bush, attracted by the rattle of our wheels, and take the driver's supplies herself. As she usually wore a wreath of flowers on her head or about her throat, her sudden appearance out of the dense greenery gave her some semblance to a modern variety of dryad, perverted to the utilitarian uses of a prosaic age.

Few bungalows could be seen, or the plantations

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