VoiciUtic Mountain In St. Vincent's- 35 



As foon as wc could fee, we returned to the ridge \vc left 

 the night before, and began to work with alacrity, as we were 

 rhnofl: chilled with cold. I puihed on as fall as podlble, and 

 about ten o'clock found the woods began to grow thin. 1 

 could not fee the top of the mountain, but had a view of fe- 

 vcral ridges that joined it. F^om tlie wind flilHng, and the 

 heat growing intenfe, I thought we muft then be under tlie 

 cover of the fummit : I here found many new plant;;. About 

 eleven A.M. I was overjoyed to have a full view of the fummit 

 of the mountain, nearly a mile diftant from us, and that we 

 were nearly out of the woody region. The top feemed to be 

 compofed of fix or feven ditferent ridges, very much broken in 

 the fides, as If they had fuffered great coavulfions of nature ; 

 they were divided by amazing deep ravins, without any water 

 in them. I obferved where the rklges meet the edge of a large 

 excavation, as it feemed to be, on the higheft part. I imagined 

 this might be the mouth of the crater, and dire.rred my courfc 

 to a high peak which overlooked it. I found here a moft 

 beautiful tree which compofed the latl: w^ood. After that I en- 

 tered into a thick long- jrrafs, intermixed with fern, which 

 branched and ran in every direction. To break it was impof- 

 fible, and wdth great difficulty I could cut it ; {q that in clear- 

 ing our way through this grafs, eight or ten feet high, there was 

 equal difficulty as in the woods, and it feemed to continue 

 very near to the top of the mountain. Being now about noon, I 

 and the negroes were fo fatigued as hardly to be able to ftand ; 

 our thirft very great, to allay which, as much as poffible, w^e 

 chewed the leaves of the Begonia obliqua. Two of the negroes 

 returned, and the others (liid they would go no farther w^ith 

 me, as they mull perifh for want of water, and it would be 

 impolfible to get to the bottom before night, and they muH: all 



Vol. LXXV. E die 



