﻿FORRESTER'S EVENINGS ^T HOME. 117 



Lloyd and Philpotts soon came up, and we began to arrange ourselves for the 

 night. I had on two pair of trousers, a shooting waistcoat, jacket, and a huge 

 Flushing jacket over that, a thick woollen sailor's cap, and each of us lighted 

 a cigar as we seated ourselves to wait for the appointed hour for our signal 

 of success. It was a glorious sight to look down from that giddy pinnacle 

 over the whole island, lying so calm and beautiful in the moonlight, except 

 where the broad black shadows of the other mountains intercepted the light. 

 Here and there we could see a light twinkling in the plains, or the fire of 

 some sugar-manufactory, but not a sound of any sort reached us, except an 

 occasional shout from the party down on the shoulder (we four being the only 

 ones above.) At length, in the direction of Port Louis, a bright flash was 

 seen, and after a long interval the boom of the evening gun. We then pre- 

 pared our prearranged signal, and whiz went a rocket from our nest, light- 

 ing up for an instant the peaks of the hills below us. and then leaving us in 

 darkness. We next burnt a blue light, and nothing can be conceived more 

 perfectly beautiful than the broad glare against the over-hanging rock. The 

 wild-looking group we made in our uncouth habiliments, and the narrow ledge 

 on which \ve stood, were all distinctly shown, while many of the tropical 

 birds, frightened at our vagaries, came glancing by in the light, and then 

 swooped away screeching into the gloom below, for the gorge on our left 

 was dark as Erebus. 



Henry. I ascended the Catskill Mountains last year, the first high 

 ground I ever visited. I could not help wishing, while gazing upon 

 the vast and beautiful prospect below, that I could visit the highest 

 mountain on the earth. 



AT. F. That you can never do. No one ever has, and probably 

 never can, reach the highest mountain's summit, by many thousand 

 feet. Various causes will prevent it. Difficulty in breathing alone 

 might probably prevent it. Then, again, as we ascend from the foot 

 of a mountain, the whole natural phenomena change as we go. At 

 first, we pass through a forest. Leaving this, a belt of shrubbery 

 must be passed over. Then all signs of vegetation disappear, except 

 a kind of moss upon the rocks. Soon we reach the region of perpet- 

 ual snow and ice. Into this we may indeed make some progress, 

 but the snows grow deeper and deeper, the air feels thin, and breath- 

 ing becomes difficult. Deep chasms in the snow and ice, which 

 have been for ages accumulating, at last shut up our progress, and 

 our journey is at an end. 



Mountains have always a greater declivity on one side than the 



