220 Phydognomy of the Islands in the Pacific, 



as varied in its tints of green as in its forms. On the left stood 

 apart from the walls an inclined columnar peak or leaning tower, 

 overhanging the valley. Its abrupt sides were bare, excepting some 

 tufts of ferns and mosses, while the top was crowned with a clump 

 of bushes. To complete the decorations of the place, — from a gorge 

 on the right, in the verdant mountains above, where the basaltic rocks 

 stood out in curved ascending columns on either side as if about to 

 meet in a Gothic arch, a stream leaped the precipice and fell in 

 dripping foam to the depths below ; where, gathering its strength 

 again, it went on its shaded way down the gorge. 



The Mountains of Tahiti commence their slopes from the sea, or 

 a narrow seashore plain, and gradually rise on all sides towards 

 the central peaks, the ridges of the north and west terminating in 

 the towering summits of Orohena and Aorai, while the eastern and 

 southern, though i*eaching towards the same peaks, are partly inter- 

 cepted by the valley of Papenoo. Aorai is seven thousand feet in 

 height, and Orohena, not less than eight thousand feet. 



We commenced the ascent of Mount Aorai by the ridge on the 

 west side of the Matavai Valley, and, by the skilfulness of our guide, 

 were generally able to keep the elevated parts of the ridge, without 

 descending into the deep valleys which bordered our path. An 

 occasional descent, and a climb on the opposite side of the valley were 

 undertaken ; and although the sides were nearly perpendicular, it 

 was accomplished without much difficulty, by climbing from tree to 

 tree, with the assistance of ropes, at times, where the mural front was 

 otherwise impassable. By noon of the second day wo had reached 

 an elevation of five thousand feet, and stood on an area twelve feet 

 square, the summit of an isolated crest in the ridge on which we were 

 travelling. To the east we looked down two thousand feet, into the 

 Matavia Valley ; to the west, a thousand feet into a branch of the 

 Papaua Valley, the slopes either way, being from sixty to eighty 

 degrees, or within thirty degrees of perpendicular. On the side of 

 our ascent, and beyond, on the opposite side, our peak was united with 

 the adjoining summit by a thin ridge, reached by a steep descent of 

 three hundred feet. This ridge was described, by our natives, as no 

 wider at top than a man's arm, and a fog coming on they refused 

 to attempt it that day. The next morning being clear, we pursued 

 our course. For a hundred rods, the ridge on which we walked 

 was two to four feet wide, and from it, we looked down on either 

 side a thousand feet or more, of almost perpendicular descent. Be- 

 yond this the ridge continued narrow, though less dangerous, until 

 we approached the high peak of Aorai. This peak had appeared to 

 be conical, and equally accessible on different sides, but it proved to 

 have but one place of approach, and that along a wall with precipices 

 of two or three thousand feet, and seldom exceeding two feet in 

 width at top. In one place we sat on it as on the back of a horse, 

 for it was no wider, and pushed ourselves along till we reached a spot 

 where its width was doubled to two feet ; and numerous bushes again 



