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National Geographic : 1960 Jul
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Hawaii, U. S. A. When I flew over the scene with crop duster Bill Stearns, our light plane was buffeted by the hot updrafts of the volcano's breath. Along a mile of coast, red-hot lavas crunched into the sea, building new land as they rolled; steam rose 5,000 feet. We turned in over the flow and below saw a score of bulldozers, looking like beetles from so high, scraping up soil to form protective dikes. Fine cinder, borne downwind from the fountain, peppered our wings and blackened the roads and fields not yet overrun by lava. Scarecrow Guards Forgotten Fields Later when I visited Kapoho afoot, I found it smothered in ash as if by a blizzard of black snow. In one abandoned garden a scarecrow stood knee-deep in the stuff, its coat flapping an idle warning to birds that would never feed here again. On the deserted main street I came upon a Civil Defense fireman, sheltered under the eaves of a deserted building near his parked fire truck. He exemplified the futility of man Cliff Riders Duck Behind a Waterfall in the Pololu Valley Heavy rainfall drenches the rugged northeastern coast of the island of Hawaii. Sugar planters pierce mountains to tap runoff for thirsty cane fields. The Kohala Ditch Trail, shown here, parallels one such tunnel. A nine-hour ride on mule back carried photographer Edwards over the hazardous path to Kapoloa Falls. Bronze plaque at Kealake kua Bay marks the spot where Hawaiian warriors killed Capt. James Cook, the English navigator who chanced on the islands in 1778. Water covers the plate at high tide. against the lava fountain I could hear roaring close by. He was reading a comic book. Triangular Hawaii is larger than all the other islands combined. Its five mountains rise like massive mounds from the sea, their flanks overlapping one another to form an intricate series of plateaus. Sugar flourishes along the northeastern coast, where time and an annual rainfall of 100 inches have crumbled the lava into soil. Else where, on drier parts of the island, impervious lavas lie flow upon flow, inert and unproduc tive under the tropic sun. Verdant Hilo, principal port of the island and, with 26,000 people, second largest city of the new State, is also its flower basket. It has rained 19 inches in a day here. With all this water, and in surroundings of tropical jungle, Hilo grows orchids and anthurium, tree ferns and hibiscus in such profusion the city itself seems a garden. Where Honolulu has the bustle of a main land city, Hilo retains the charming simplicity of an overgrown plantation town. Shops PunTM1PAPUA PV WATTVP3MVAVVPSPfWAPS LT. NC.S
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