1835.] MODE OF PRODUCING FIRE. 409 



rock. One of the Tahitians, a fine active man, placed the trunk 

 of a tree against this, climbed up it, and then by the aid of 

 crevices reached the summit. He fixed the ropes to a projecting 

 point, and lowered them for our dog and luggage, and then 

 we clambered up ourselves. Beneath the ledge on which 

 the dead tree was placed, the precipice must have been five 

 or six hundred feet deep ; and if the abyss had not been partly 

 concealed by the overhanging ferns and lilies, my head would 

 have turned giddy, and nothing should have induced me to have 

 attempted it. We continued to ascend, sometimes along ledges, 

 and sometimes along knife-edged ridges, having on each hand 

 profound ravines. In the Cordillera 1 have seen mountains on 

 a far grander scale, but for abruptness, nothing at all comparable 

 with this. In the evening we reached a flat little spot on the 

 banks of the same stream, which we had continued to follow, 

 and which descends in a chain of waterfalls : here we bivouacked 

 for the night. On each side of the ravine there were great beds 

 of the mountain-banana, covered with ripe fruit. Many of these 

 plants were from twenty to twenty-five feet high, and from three 

 to four in circumference. By the aid of strips of bark for rope, 

 the stems of bamboos for rafters, and the large leaf of the banana 

 for a thatch, the Tahitians in a few minutes built us an excellent 

 house ; and with withered leaves made a soft bed. 



They then proceeded to make a fire, and cook our evening 

 meal. A light was procured, by rubbing a blunt-pointed stick 

 in a groove made in another, as if with intention of deepening 

 it, until by the friction the dust became ignited. A peculiarly 

 white and very light wood (the Hibiscus tiliaceus) is alone used 

 for this purpose: it is the same which serves for poles to carry 

 any burden, and for the floating outriggers to their canoes. The 

 fire was produced in a few seconds : but to a person who does 

 not understand the art, it requires, as I found, the greatest exer- 

 tion ; but at last, to my great pride, I succeeded in igniting the 

 dust. The Gaucho in the Pampas uses a different method : 

 taking an elastic stick about eighteen inches long, he presses one 

 end on his breast, and the other pointed end into a hole in a piece 

 of wood, and then, rapidly turns the curved part, like a car- 

 penter's centre-bit. The Tahitians having made a small fire of 

 sticks, placed a score of stones, of about the size of cricket -balls, 



