16C) THE SAVANNA OF AIUPO. 



and the road up to it, are best described by one who, after 

 fourteen years of hard scientific work in the island, now lies 

 lonely in San Fernando churchyard, far from his beloved 

 Fatherland he, or at least all of him tliat could die. I 

 wonder whether that of him which can never die, knows 

 what his Fatherland is doing now ? But to the waterfall 

 of ]\Iaraccas, or rather to poor Dr. Krueger's description 

 of it : 



" The northern chain of mountains, covered nearly every- 

 where with dense forests, is intersected at various angles by 

 numbers of valleys presenting the most lovely character. 

 Generally each valley is watered by a silvery stream, tumbling 

 here and there over rocks and natural dams, ministering in 

 a continuous rain to the strange-looking river-canes, dumb- 

 canes, and balisiers, that voluptuously bend their heads to 

 the drizzly shower which plays incessantly on their glisten- 

 ing leaves, off which the globules roll in a thousand pearls, 

 as from the glossy plumage of a stately swan. 



" One of these falls deserves particular notice the Cascade 

 of Maraccas in the valley of that name. The high road 

 leads up the valley a few miles, over hills, and along the 

 windings of the river, exhibiting the varying scenery of our 

 mountain district in the fairest style. There, on the river 

 side, you may admire the gigantic pepper-trees, or the silvery 

 leaves of the Calathea, the lofty bamboo, or the fragrant 



