t, are questions awaiting an answer.

All of these places are now abandoned except a few villages along the
coast. The people are not here to occupy them, and even if they were
the conditions have become so changed that residence about them is no
longer feasible. At the temple site, for example, the extent of the
old taro beds predicates an abundance of water; at present, the one
family living near by must carry it in a dry season from the well or
spring of a neighbor. There is no steady water supply within miles of
the "paved trail."

Clearly, extensive changes have taken place in recent times in climate
and perhaps in topography. Fifty years ago forests of large trees grew
over hundreds of square miles on the southern slopes of Molokai where
at the present time there is only grass, or where algaroba trees,
similar to the mesquite of the southwestern United States, are now
spreading. This deforestation is still going on; dead or dying trees
fringe the timber still standing. The cause of this progressive
barrenness has not, so far, been, fully ascertained; there is
undoubtedly a connection between it and the diminished water supply,
though which is cause and which is effect, or whether both are due in
common to some atmospheric phenomenon, is unknown. One result,
however, is apparent. The roots of the forest trees do not extend deep
into the earth, but spread out over the surface like those of pine
trees. Thus much of the rainfall was prevented from escaping rapidly
and such as was not absorbed by the roots made its way into the ground
beneath the upper soil, whence it percolated downward to feed the
springs. Now the greater part of the water runs off and is lost. For
this reason large areas once well populated are no longer habitable.

Molokai, like other islands of the group, contains no stone except of
volcanic or coral formation. There is no chert or similar material
from which chipped implements can be made; nor, as would naturally be
expected, is there any obsidian suitable for such manufacture. It may
occasionally be seen on the sites of villages, but always in small
angular fragments seldom more than half an inch in any dimension,
always coarse-grained, even porous, and never of a quality which can
be flaked into definite forms. No doubt its only use was as an
abrasive, after being pounded fine. Rarely, quartz or chalcedony is
found; it resembles the deposit around hot springs or in fissures,
and, like the ob