A HISTORY OF TAHITI 



109 



guava, tree-ferns, and clambering pandaniis, and shadowed by precipices 

 towering 3,000 feet above the cahii secluded waters. From afar the riv- 

 ulets dash down until torn by the ragged walls they fade mostly into 

 mist and cloud-like descend in silence to the region of the lake. Al- 

 though only one third of a mile wide, the natives believed this little lake 

 to be bottomless until our plumb line came to rest at a depth of 80 feet. 

 There is, however, no visible outlet although huge eels glide among the 

 water-weeds, and the mystery becomes cleared away when one goes down 

 into Vaihiria valley where at the foot of a wall of broken rocks a cool 

 clear stream rushes impetuously into the sunlight. In fact the little 

 lake has been formed by a land-slide which has dammed the valley the 

 upper part of which it now occupies. 



In every feature Tahiti shows the wear of rain and weather, but 

 still the green summit of Orohena towers 7,300 feet above the level 

 of the sea, and 22,000 feet above the floor of the surrounding ocean. 

 Yet the rains have accomplished much, and the almost constant land- 

 slides show they are effecting more in their persistent work of levelling 

 the grand peaks: and now 150 valleys wind downward from the high- 

 lands to the sea. 



One is never away from the murmur of rippling water, as the moun- 

 tain streams splash among moss-covered boulders that have rolled from 

 their ancient lodgment in the caiion sides. As Bougainville wrote, 

 these Tahitian valleys are images of Paradise upon earth. The brooks 

 glide through arches formed by the interlacing leaves of wild banana, 

 the " Fei " of Tahiti, while great caladiums flourish in the ever-moist- 

 ened soil, and the perfume of vanilla pervades the air. Banyans form 



EiMEO FROM Tahiti. 



