452 TAHITI. 



of the bushes, "and let down a rope by which we reached the 

 crest. In order to collect plants, I had to hold my knotted 

 handkerchief in my teeth and fill it. It was impossible to get 

 at a vasculum. The crest of the ridge was nowhere more than 

 a yard wide, often less. There was an almost sheer fall on 

 either hand, and if grass and small bushes had not been grow- 

 ing at the edge on each side, it would have been very difficult 

 to walk along the ridge without becoming giddy. It was as if 

 one were walking along the top of an immensely high wall. 



Here and there, small Metrosideros trees grew upon the 

 centre of the crest of the ridge, and when these were en- 

 countered, we had to climb between the branches, often where 

 they overhung a sheer drop below, and once we had to swing 

 ourselves along the steep side of the crest for a short distance 

 past one of these trees under its overhanging branches. 



We ascended the crest of the ridge, until we had reached 

 an altitude of 4,000 feet, when the guides found the way barred 

 by a precipice and entirely impracticable. The summit of the 

 ridge was covered wnth a thick growth of the fern Gkichenia 

 dk/ioioma, and a climbing fern {Lygodium), and amongst the 

 bushes on the ridge a Whortleberry ( Vacciniuni) was very 

 abundant, and also two species of Metrosideros. The entire 

 vegetation was different from that below. One of the species 

 of Metrosideros was, however, also seen growing much lower 

 down. 



Just as the ridge met the face of the mountain, by which we 

 were brought to a halt, its crest widened out, and here there 

 was a damp hollow with mosses and lichens growing in it, 

 in great abundance. Here also grew a tree {Fitchia nutans) 

 belonging to the Composita^, with a large yellow flower. The 

 tree was 20 feet in height, and had a trunk nine inches in 

 diameter. It is allied to the Composite trees of Juan Fer- 

 nandez, being nearly related to the Chicory. 



Here in the soft loose soil, amongst the moss, were numerous 

 burrows of a Petrel, I believe Procellaria rostrata. The natives 

 call the bird " Night-bird," just as the inhabitants of Tristan 

 da Cunha call the Burrowing Petrels there " Night-birds." 

 The Tropic Birds also nest far up in the mountains, and in 

 Hawaii they nest in the cliffs of the crater of Kilauea at an 

 altitude of 4,000 feet. Similarly a Puffin {Fuffimis nngax) 

 nests at the top of the Korovasa Basaga mountain, in Viti 

 Levu Island, Fiji,* and, in like manner, a Procellaria breeds in 

 the high mountains in Jamaica. 



* Finsch und Hartlaub, " Ornithologie der Viti, Samoa, und Tonga 

 Inseln." Halle, 1867. Einleitung, S. XVHI. Peale describes the habit 

 in qiieslioii oi Pncc//ana tosfid/a at Tal.itJ. 



