400 A STRIKING VIEW. fcHAP. xviff 



ridge between two of the deep ravines. The vegetation 

 was singular, consisting almost exclusively of small dwar/ 

 ferns, mingled, higher up, with coarse grass ; it was not 

 very dissimilar from that on some of the Welsh hills, and 

 this so close above the orchard of tropical plants on the 

 coast was very surprising. At the highest point, which I 

 reached, trees again appeared. Of the three zones of com- 

 parative luxuriance, the lower one owes its moisture, and 

 therefore fertility, to its flatness ; for, being scarcely raised 

 above the level of the sea, the water from the higher land 

 drains away slowly. The intermediate zone does not, like 

 the upper one, reach into a damp and cloudy atmosphere, 

 and therefore remains sterile. The woods in the upper 

 zone are very pretty, tree-ferns replacing the cocoa-nuts on 

 the coast. It must not, however, be supposed that these 

 woods at all equal in splendour the forests of Brazil. 

 The vast number of productions which characterise a 

 continent, cannot be expected to occur in an island. 



From the highest point which I attained, there was a 

 good view of the distant island of Eimeo, dependent on 

 the same sovereign with Tahiti. On the lofty and broken 

 pinnacles white massive clouds were piled up, which 

 formed an island in the blue sky, as Eimeo itself did in 

 the blue ocean. The island, with the exception of one 

 small gateway, is completely encircled by a reef. At this 

 distance, a narrow but well-defined brilliantly white line 

 was alone visible, where the waves first encountered the 

 wall of coral. The mountains rose abruptly out of the 

 glassy expanse of the lagoon, included within this narrow 

 white line, outside which the heaving waters of the ocean 

 were dark-coloured. The view was striking : it may aptly 

 be compared to a framed engraving, where the frame 

 represents the breakers, the marginal paper the smooth 

 lagoon, and the drawing the island itself. When in the 

 evening I descended from the mountain, a man, whom I 

 had pleased with a trifling gift, met me, bringing with 

 him hot roasted bananas, a pine-apple, and cocoa-nuts. 

 After walking under a burning sun, I do not know any- 

 thing more delicious than the milk of a young cocoa-nut. 

 Pine-apples are here so abundant that the people eat them in 

 the same wasteful manner as we migiit turnips. They are 

 of an excellent flavour — perhaps even better than those 

 cultivated in England ; and this I believe is the highest 

 compliment which can be paid to any- fruit. Before going 



