312 EFFECTS OF THE TRADE-WIND. 



on the contrary, the picturesque and smiling 

 landscape of the interior forms the most strik- 

 ing contrast to its external sternness, and sug- 

 gests the idea of a gifted mind, compelled by 

 painful experience to shroud its charms under 

 a forbidding veil of coldness and reserve. 



This remark only, however, applies to the 

 western part of the island, which is protected 

 from the trade-wind. The higher eastern part, 

 where Napoleon lived, is as dead and barren as 

 its rocky boundary. The trade-wind to which 

 this district is constantly exposed, brings a 

 perpetual fog, and drives the clouds in con- 

 gregated heaps to the summits of the moun- 

 tain, where they frequently burst in sudden and 

 violent showers, often producing inundations, 

 and rendering the air damp and unwholesome 

 for the greater part of the year. The ground 

 is for this reason incapable of cultivation ; and 

 a species of gum-tree, the only one to be seen 

 in the neighbourhood of Longwood, by its 

 .■stunted growth of hardly six feet, and its 

 universal bend in one direction, proves how de- 

 structive is the effect of the trade-wind to all 

 vegetable life. The nearer we approached the 



