158 TJII'J NORTIfERN MOUNTAINS. 



reverent enough : but you must forgive its not being sensitive 

 wliile it is recovering from that most deafening of plagues, 

 a tropic cold in the head. 



Would that I had space to tell at length of our long and 

 delightful journey back the next day, which lay for several 

 miles along the path by which we came, and then, after we 

 had looked down once more on the exquisite bay of Fillette, 

 kept along the northern wall of the mountains, instead of 

 turning up to the slope which we came over out of Caura. 

 For miles we paced a mule-path, narrow, but well-kept as it 

 had need to be ; for a fall would have involved a roll into 

 green abysses, from which we should probably not have 

 re-ascended. Again the surf rolled softly far below; and 

 here and there a vista throuG^h the trees showed us some 

 view of the sea and woodlands almost as beautiful as that 

 at Fillette. Ever and anon some fresh valuable tree or plant, 

 wasting in the wilderness, was pointed out. More than once 

 we became aware of a keen and dreadful scent, as of a con- 

 ' centrated essence of unwashed tropic humanity, which pro- 

 ceeded from that strange animal, the porcupine with a 

 prehensile tail,^ who prowls in the tree-tops all night, and 

 sleeps in them all day, spending his idle hours in making 

 this hideous smell. Probably he or his ancestors have found 



^ Synetheres. 



