1^3 VOYAGE IN SEARCH 



I went on fhore in (he afternoon with the 

 gardener and two of our people, in order to 

 penetrate towards the north cad. We were 

 ': with admiration at the fight of thefe an- 

 forefts which the hatchet had not hitherto 

 touched. The eye was aitonifhed at the prodi- 

 gious height of the trees ; fome of the family of 

 the myrti were upwards of a demi-hcclometer 

 (more than one hundred and fifty feet) high : 

 their bumy tops were crowned with a foliage 

 of perpetual verdure; feveral of them falling, 

 from age, found a fupport on tlietr neighbours, 

 and fell to the ground only in proportion as they 

 rotted. The moil vigorous vegetation forms an 

 admirable contraft with this ftate of decay; and 

 here is feen, in all- its grandeur, the iirilung 

 picture of Nature, who, left to herfelf, deftroys 

 only to renovate. 



The trees of this forefl were not, however, 

 fo thick as to prevent our entering it. We 

 walked a long time over a foil where the 

 being occafionally obftrueled in their 

 courfc, had Jbrmcd marfhes : we vifitcd their 

 banks, and we found, farther on, fome fmall rivu- 

 lets of very good water. Almoft every where was 

 llent vegetable mould, often up- 

 la of four decimeters in depth; it lies on 

 a reddifh and fomctimes a gray frec-ftone. 



We 



