OF LA PKROUSE- 265 



Being covered with lianes or parafitical plants, 

 they refembled fo many columns ornamented 

 with garlands, and added much to the pictu- 

 xefque afpedl of this charming ifland. 



New Ireland, which is oppolite to Sandwich 

 Ifland, offers alio to the view lands of no great 

 elevation. I there obferved, riling from the 

 middle of a vaft plain, a few hills, of from four to 

 jfive hundred meters in perpendicular height. 



Sandwich Ifland is terminated to the north-eafr. 

 by feveral points which form fo many hummocks, 

 ftretching out into the fea : of thefe we diftin- 

 guifhed five principal ones ; one of them has to- 

 wards its bafe a mountain in the form of a peak, 

 and this is the moft elevated fpot in the whole 

 ifland, although it is not more than from four to 

 five hundred meters in perpendicular elevation : 

 it is confequently not near fo high as Carteret 

 mentions. The clearnefs of the weather, and 

 the fhort diftance at which we were from this 

 little mountain, enabled us to judge of its 

 height. 



A few huts, under the made of the forefts of 

 cocoa-palms, made us hope for an interview 

 with the inhabitants of Sandwich Ifland ; but it 

 was no doubt too early in the morning for thefe 

 favages to come and pay us a viiit, for we faw 

 pot one of them. 



The 



