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bays between headlands. The largest reefs are those at Port 

 Tictoria, on the north-east of Mahe, and the north-east and 

 south-west ends of Praslin. 



" 11. The surface of these Islands is mountainous and un- 

 dulating, often abruptly so, presenting a pleasing variety of 

 aspects of hill and dale, ravine and valley, rock and crag. It 

 is strewn with granite boulders of all sizes and shapes. The 

 surface of the boulders is often deeply grooved or striated, 

 worn, or hollowed out, by water or the weather. 



" The boulders are to be found lying sometimes on their beds, 

 sometimes tilted on their sharp edges, sides, or ends. Gene- 

 rally speaking thero are cavities between them, — in some 

 cases thirty or more feet in depth, and several feet in width. 

 The boulders, from their distorted positions, seem to have 

 been rent asunder by volcanic action. They are most nume- 

 rous near the mountain tops, and in the bottom of ths ravi- 

 nes, across which they sometimes lie like moraines, and not 

 unlikely the debris of land-ships, from the tops and sides of 

 the mountains. 



"12. The soil in Praslin has been much disintegrated and 

 washed away, since the destruction of the virgin forests. lu 

 both Praslin and Curieuse, it is very pooi*. A small portion 

 of Silhouette is a bare rock, but where soil exists in this Is- 

 land its quality is very good. Excepting about 70 acres, 

 Isle aux Fregates is almost a naked rock. The soil of the 70 

 acres is most excellent. This is owing to the site having once 

 been the bed of a lagoon, into which all the debris and vege- 

 table matter from the higher parts of the Island have been 

 carried by heavy rains. Before Isle aux Fregates was inha= 

 bited, it was the home of innumerable sea birds, a circums° 

 tance which, very probably may have added to the fertility of 

 the debris carried into the la^foon. 



