124 THE NORTHEBN MOUNTAINS. 



stabling for tlieiu furtlier on. How far was the new clearing ? 

 Oil, perliaps a couple of miles perhaps a league. And how 

 high up ? Oh, nothing only a hundred feet or two. One 

 knew what that meant ; and, with a sigh, resigned oneself to 

 a four or five miles' mountain walk at the end of a long day, 

 and started up the steep zigzag, through cacao groves, past 

 the loveliest gardens I recollect in one an agave in flower, 

 nigh thirty feet high, its spike all primrose and golden yellow 

 in the fading sunlight then up into rastrajo ; and then into 

 high wood, and a world of ferns tree ferns, climbing ferns, 

 and all other ferns wliich ever delighted the eye in an 

 English hothouse. For along these northern slopes, sheltered 

 from the sun for the greater part of the year, and for ever 

 watered by the steam of the trade-wind, ferns are far more 

 luxuriant and varied than in any other part of the island. 



Soon it grew dark, and we strode on up hill and down dale, 

 at one time for a mile or more through burnt forest, with 

 its ghastly spider-work of leafless decaying branches and 

 creepers against the moonlit sky a sad sight : but music 

 enough we had to cheer us on our way. We did not hear 

 the howl of a monkey, nor the yell of a tiger-cat, common 

 enough on the mountains which lay in front of us : but of 

 harping, fiddling, humming, drumming, croaking, clacking, 

 snoring, screaming, hooting, from cicadas, toads, birds, and 

 what not, there was a concert at every step, which made tlie 



