Show 11 I Hawaiian Wonder Tunnel Dug Dug r I 9 Recent clearing of a section of land on Honolulu previously heavily covered with guava bushes has brought to light an extraordinary feat of engineering by the early lIa Hawaiians At an elevation of more than 1000 feet above the sea and leading from the dammed bed of a mountain torrent there 4 runs a remarkable tunnel cut out of the extremely hard lava which underlies the entire district The tunnel has a width of more than two feet and is some six feet In height It leads lends on a downgrade through the shoulder of a steep steep slope emerging after a few hundred I yards upon a terraced plateau where man many years ago largo large crops of taro a plant akin to th the sw sweet et I potato were grown These terraces are now given over to rice cultivation and are irrigated by the water flowing from this ancient I tunnel Early HawaIIans had no tools save those made out of stone Hence it is believed that fires fires- were lighted I at In intervals in- in the tho on shoulder of the slope I that the lava being slightly and softened the heat b by was then dug out WIth I stone Implements The native engineers apparently then proceeded to each shaft to tunnel the base from o of tho the thoo the next base of f one By some the work is time o of l the attributed to the Great the who united the Islands under king In about the middle one sovereignty sovereignty of the eighteenth eighteenth eight eight- century but old natives tunnel Is of say the i much earlier origin |