1836.] LA POUCE. 475 



bespeak our approach to the old world of civilisation ; for 

 in truth both Australia and America are new worlds. 



The various races of men walking- in the streets afford 

 the most interesting spectacle in Port Louis. Convicts 

 from India are banished here for life; at present there are 

 about 800, and they are employed in various public works. 

 Before seeing these people, I had no idea that the in- 

 habitants of India were such noble-looking figures. Their 

 skin is extremely dark, and many of the older men had 

 large moustaches and beards of a snow-white colour ; this, 

 together with the fire of their expression, gave them 

 quite an imposing aspect. The greater number had been 

 banished for murder and the worst crimes ; others for 

 causes which can scarcely be considered as moral faults, 

 such as for not obeying, from superstitious motives, the 

 English laws. These men are generally quiet and well 

 conducted ; from their outward conduct, their cleanliness, 

 and faithful observance of their strange religious rites, 

 it was impossible to look at them with the same eyes as 

 on our wretched convicts in New South Wales. 



May 1st. — Sunday. I took a quiet walk along the sea- 

 coast to the north of the town. The plain in this part 

 is quite uncultivated ; it consists of a field of black lava, 

 smoothed over with coarse grass and bushes, the latter 

 being chiefly Mimosas. The scenery may be described as 

 intermediate in character between that of the Galapagos 

 and of Tahiti ; but this will convey a definite idea to 

 very few persons. It is a very pleasant country, but 

 it has not the charms of Tahiti, or the grandeur of Brazil. 

 The next day I ascended La Pouce, a mountain so called 

 Irom a thumb-like projection, which rises close behind 

 the town to a height of 2600 feet. The centre of the island 

 consists of a great platform, surrounded by old broken 

 basaltic mountains, with their strata dipping seawards. 

 i he central platform, formed of comparatively recent 

 srrcams of lava, is of an oval shape, thirteen geographical 

 miles across, in the line of its shorter axis. The exterior 

 unding mountains come into that class of structures 

 lied Craters of Elevation, which are supposed to have 

 '■n formed not like ordinary craters, but by a great and 

 (klen upheaval. There appears to me to be insuperable 

 jections to this view; on the other hand, I can hardlv 

 lieve, in this and in some other cases, that these marginal 

 iteriform mountains are merely the basal remnants 01 



