44 WANDERINGS IN 



FIRST o f immense rocks. The huts are not all in one 



JOURNEY. 



place, but dispersed wherever they have found a 



place level enough for a lodgement. Before you 

 ascend the hill, you see at intervals an acre or 

 two of wood, then an open space, with a few 

 huts on it; then wood again, and then an open 

 space ; and so on ; till the intervening of the 

 western hills, higher and steeper still, and crowded 

 with trees of the loveliest shades, closes the en- 

 chanting scene. 



immense At the base of this hill stretches an immense 

 plain, which appears to the eye, on this elevated 

 spot, as level as a bowling green. The mountains 

 on the other side are piled one upon the other in 

 romantic forms, and gradually retire, till they are 

 undiscernible from the clouds in which they are 

 involved. To the south - south - west this far- 

 extending plain is lost in the horizon. The trees 

 on it, which look like islands on the ocean, add 

 greatly to the beauty of the landscape ; while the 

 rivulet's course is marked out by the aeta trees 

 which follow its meanders. 



Not being able to pursue the direct course from 

 hence to the next Indian habitation, on account of 

 the floods of water which fall at this time of the 

 year, you take a circuit westerly along the moun- 

 tain's foot. 



Creek. At last a large and deep creek stops your 



progress : it is wide and rapid, and its banks 

 very steep. There is neither curial nor canoe, 



