BEAUTIFUL SCENERY. 225 



yokes, and, after much hand-shaking and innumerable 

 good wishes from the residents of the adjoining 

 station, we started. The river-bed, which we had 

 to cross, and the incline up its opposite side, were 

 both stiff pulls ; but our beasts were fresh and in 

 good heart, so each was accomplished without a 

 halt, when before us lay stretched a truly charming 

 upland country. In many parts of it, more particularly 

 in the hollows, the timber reached to a goodly size, 

 while its foliage was varied with every tint, from 

 deepest green to dark orange colour, all resting upon 

 a carpeting of scarlet-flowering verbena. Amongst 

 the woodland, frequently reclined enormous slabs of 

 sandstone rock, some of them of gigantic size, lying 

 one upon the other, as if piled up by some Titanic 

 agency, and now covered with parasitic plants, green 

 as the pine or ivy, giving them a close resemblance 

 to many a mediaeval ruin to be seen in our dear old 

 island home. 



