OF LA PEROUSI. 



205 



I have found this cuflom very general among 

 the inhabitants of the mountains of Afia Minor. 



It is not a common pracflice with the inha- 

 bitants of New Caledonia to make an incifion in 

 their prepuce ; but out of lix of thofe who were 

 willing to fatisfy our curiofity, we obferved one 

 who had his flit longitudinally in all the upper 

 part. 



When we had got halfway up the mountain, 

 the natives who followed us begged us not to 

 proceed farther, informing us that the in- 

 habitants on the other iide of that chain would 

 eat us. We continued however to afcend as far 

 as the fummir; for, being well armed, we had 

 nothing to fear from thefe cannibals. Doubt- 

 lefs thofe who accompanied us were at war 

 with the others, for they would follow us no 

 farther. 



The mountains over which we clambered 

 rife in the form of an amphitheatre, and are 

 a continuation of the great chain which runs 

 the whole length of the ifland. Their perpen- 

 dicular height is about eight hundred meters 

 above the level of the fea. We faw them rife 

 gradually towards the eaft fouth-eall, and ex- 

 tend as far as a very high mountain about fix 

 mvriameters diftant from our anchorafre. 



We found the principal component parts of 

 thefe mafics to be quartz, mica, a fteatite more 



lefs 



