392 TAHITI. ['HAP. xvnr. 



immediately the natives jumped overboard, and by their cries and 

 vain efforts at assistance almost drowned it. As soon, however, as 

 it reached the shore, the whole population took to flight, and tried 

 to hide themselves from the man-carrying pig, as they christened 

 the horse. 



A little higher up, the river divided itself into three little 

 streams. The two northern ones were impracticable, owing to a 

 succession of waterfalls which descended from the jagged summit 

 of the highest mountain ; the other to all appearance was equally 

 inaccessible, but we managed to ascend it by a most extraordinary 

 road. The sides of the valley were here nearly precipitous; but, 

 as frequently happens with stratified rocks, small ledges projected, 

 which were thickly covered by wild bananas, liliaceous plants, 

 and other luxuriant productions of the tropics. The Tahitians, by 

 climbing amongst these ledges, searching for fruit, had discovered 

 a track by which the whole precipice could be scaled. The first 

 ascent from the valley was very dangerous ; for it was necessary to 

 pass a steeply inclined face of naked rock, by the aid of ropes 

 which we brought with us. How any person discovered that this 

 formidable spot was the only point where the side of the mountain 

 was practicable, I cannot imagine. We then cautiously walked 

 along one of the ledges till we came to one of the three streams. 

 This ledge formed a flat spot, above which a beautiful cascade, 

 some hundred feet in height, poured down its waters, and beneath, 

 another high cascade fell into the main stream in the valley below. 

 From this cool and shady recess we made a circuit to avoid the 

 overhanging waterfall. As before, we followed little projecting 

 ledges, the danger being partly concealed by the thickness of the 

 vegetation. In passing from one of the ledges to another, there 

 was a vertical wall of rock. One of the Tahitians, a fine active 

 man, placed the trunk of a tree against this, climbed up it, and 

 then by the aid of crevices reached the summit. He fixed the 

 ropes to a projecting point, and lowered them for our dog and 

 luggage, and then we clambered up ourselves. Beneath the ledge 

 on which the dead tree was placed, the precipice must have been 

 five or six hundred feet deep; and if the abyss had not been partly 

 concealed by the overhanging ferns and lilies, my head would have 

 turned giddy, and nothing should have induced me to have 

 attempted it. "We continued to ascend, sometimes along ledges, 

 and sometimes along knife-edged ridges, having on each hand pro- 



