the way to or
from more distant ports it is hard to decide which of the many
interesting places to visit. If it be his first visit, the mere city
streets with the royal palms and other magnificent trees, the stores,
the cosmopolitan crowds and other strange sights and sounds will be
fascinating. A drive to the Punchbowl, the Poli, or more distant points,
may be taken in a few hours, while if interested in natural history the
gorgeous fishes and other marine forms to be seen at the Aquarium will
be a revelation to one accustomed only to the life of the temperate
zone.

At the Bishop Museum the natural history, ethnology, etc., of the
islands may be studied in a synoptic form. It is here that the famous
war-cloak of Kamehameha I is on exhibition. It is a truly wonderful
garment, four feet long, with a spread of ten feet or more at the
bottom. It is made of the yellow feathers of the mama bird, and when it
is realized that each bird furnishes but two small tufts of feathers,
one under each wing, it will be imagined how many thousands of these
small birds were sacrificed to make this one robe. It is valued at
$150,000. It is carefully protected from dust and light but is exhibited
to visitors to the museum.

In the cool of the evening, when tired from a day of sight-seeing, the
traveler may listen to the Honolulu Band, on some public square. It is
composed of native musicians, but the instruments are those of the
ordinary American brass band, and but for the cosmopolitan character of
the audience one might imagine himself in a city of southern California
or some other subtropical part of the United States.

Besides having the most equable climate in the world Honolulu claims the
most perfect bathing-resort on earth, Waikiki Beach. The water is
certainly all that could be desired, but the not infrequent sharp masses
of coral that project up through the white sand of the otherwise perfect
beach are decidedly objectionable, and the writer cut a gash in his
foot, by stepping on one of these pieces of coral, that was many days in
healing.

[Illustration: ROYAL PALMS, HONOLULU.]

Another of the points of interest in the city is the Royal Mausoleum,
where are the bodies of many of the royalty of the Hawaiian dynasties.
The Hawaiian alphabet consists of but twelve letters, and the
preponderance of vowels in many words seems remarkable to an
English-speaking person. For example one of the bodies in the Royal
Mausoleum is tha