84 Couthouy on Coral Formations 



to something more than a mere passing notice of their exist- 

 ence. They may be divided into three classes. The most 

 common and extensive is that descending from the base of 

 the central ridge, where it is often so narrow that a person 

 may spring across with ease, to the sea shore, where it gradu- 

 ally widens into a plain of a mile or more in breadth, and 

 constitutes the most fertile and valuable portion of the soil. 

 The ravines of this character are in general the bed of 

 streams, fed by mountain torrents and cascades, of which I 

 have counted eleven from one point of view, having a fall of 

 from two hundred to twelve hundred feet, and glittering like 

 so many veins of burnished silver, on the black face of the 

 volcanic rock. They are bounded on each side by steep and 

 frequently inaccessible walls, every crevice and ledge of 

 which is clothed with the most luxuriant vegetation, and are 

 generally terminated at their upper extremity by the central 

 mountain, which rises in a perpendicular barrier of occasion- 

 ally two thousand feet elevation. The only way in which 

 these central peaks can be reached, is by following up the 

 securiform lateral ridges, and even this method is not always 

 practicable, on account of the steep and lofty cliffs that rise 

 from their summits, and frown a stern denial to all further 

 progress. 



It is on the plains at the termination of these ravines, that 

 tlie villages of the natives are usually situated, and the 

 voyager Avho has coasted the shores of Tahiti, can never for- 

 get the Eden beauty of some of these spots. The groves of 

 orange, whose golden fruitage and snowy blossoms gleam 

 star-like from a mass of dark verdure ; the intermingling of 

 the tall cocoa's graceful, plumelike crest of drooping foliage ; 

 the lofty and wide spreading Yi, [Spondias dulcis,) and Bar- 

 ringtonia, {B. speciosa,) the rich hues of the bread fruit tree ; 

 the deep shining green of the broad, bannery leaves of the 

 plantain ; the Hibiscus, with its large, gay blossoms of orange 

 and crimson; the coral tree, [Erythrina corallode7idro7i,) one 

 dazzling mass of scarlet flowers ; with a little wilderness of 

 limes, guavas, and other trees peculiar to these climes — the 

 picturesque cabins, peering out here and there from the dense 



