DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPEDITION 5 



had to be sent down to the coast to be dried and the daily visits to look after them 

 after rough mountain work were very laborious. However, we visited every peak and 

 the head of every valley in the island, securing a large set of dried plants of all kinds 

 and specimens of the rocks. In this we were greatly assisted by M. Dauban himself 

 and his head forester, who twice took us through an untouched coastal timber reserve, 

 the only one at low level in the whole group, to the south of the island. We were 

 also visited by M. Dupont, Curator of the Botanic Gardens, who gave us the benefit 

 of his knowledge in the higher jungles. We returned to Victoria. Mahe, on Aug. 22, 

 when Mr Scott shifted to Mare aux Cochons, subsequently returning to Mahe on Oct. 2. 



In Mahe I remained in Victoria for a week endeavouring to dry the Silhouette 

 collections and visiting the north of the island. In this part all the jungle has been cleared, 

 the hilltops being bare, or partly grass-covered, or sprinkled with introduced filao trees 

 (Casuarina equisetifolia). Immediately north of Victoria, it was interesting to see the 

 remains of the old French terrace cultivation of the eighteenth century, built up walls to 

 hold the earth for spice shrubs. On Aug. 28 I left for La Plaine on the west side of the 

 island having borrowed a house from M. Julian Lemarchand. The situation was a coral 

 flat close to the sea with many paths up to the highest ridge of the island, which 

 extends for three miles N.W. of Morne Seychellois at a minimal elevation of 2,200 feet. 

 There was, too, a second nearer ridge about 1,700 feet high, which was also almost 

 untouched in places. The main ridge was traversed for its whole length and most of 

 the other peaks were visited, several hundred sheets of plants being secured. The coast 

 too, was examined from N.W. Bay to Barbaron. We returned to Victoria on Sept. 11, 

 whence after great difficulties in plant drying we went with Mr Thomasset along the 

 coast to Anse Royale and Baie Lazare, spending nine days in the south of the island, 

 where we ascended the four hill masses, securing several new plants, and traversed the 

 coasts. It was not, however, a profitable visit, the hilltops having been cleared of jungle, 

 our new plants being only such as love the glacis. The animal life at all heights was 

 only such as one finds in cultivation, insects mostly introduced with only the more 

 robust indigenous varieties. We secured a large series of Ccecilians from different 

 localities, some having eggs*. 



I then returned north to Cascade where I had a week with Mr Thomasset at his 

 place, which is situated some 600 feet above the sea and where he has a drying house, 

 equally good for vanilla and botanical specimens. The jungle on the ridge between 

 and around Mts. Harrison and Capucin was the best and most varied that we found 

 in the Seychelles, while Mt Sebert is the locality whence Mr Thomasset has obtained 

 many of his new plants, its summit being naturally bare glacis. After a week in the 

 jungles here, I returned to Victoria, whence I visited the islands off the same and 

 Mamelle, reaching England finally on Oct. 28. 



After I left, Mr Scott remained in the Seychelles until March 1909. He had a 

 house under Morne Blanc at about 800 feet, from which he was able to visit the jungles 

 of Morne Seychellois. He also stayed at Mare aux Cochons, Mahd, at about 1,000 feet, 



* We desire to thank Dr Bradley, the Commissioner of the South of Mahe, and M. Cauvin, for their 

 kindness and hospitality. 



