390 TAHITI. [CHAP. xvm. 



two of the deep ravines. The vegetation was singular, consisting 

 almost exclusively of small dwarf 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 comparative 

 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 inter- 

 mediate 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 characterize 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 ex- 

 ception of one small gateway, is completely encircled by a reef. 

 A t this distance, a narrow but well-defined brilliantly white lino 

 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 en- 

 graving, 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 anything 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 might 

 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 on 

 board, Mr. Wilson interpreted for me to the Tahitian who had 



