THE FOREST. 41 



elevation may be a hundred feet, sloping down gently 

 to the shore. 



THE SOUTHERN CROSS. 



A few days after my arrival, I had set out some 

 time before dawn, to go in a canoe round the neigh- 

 bouring shore. As I walked along the road to 

 Belmont, suddenly and unexpectedly the Southern 

 Cross caught my eye, close to the meridian, and 

 therefore erect. My first emotion was a gush of 

 pleasure, at seeing what T had so often read of, and 

 wished to see; my next, a feeling of disappoint- 

 ment at its effect. I had expected a much more 

 splendid constellation; if I had not known its form 

 from books, I do not think I should ever have been 

 struck with it, or hardly have noticed any resemblance 

 to a cross ; the westernmost star is too near the 

 beam, and too high, to be symmetrical with the 

 opposite one ; it is much inferior, too, in magnitude; 

 and there is another star, quite supernumerary, a 

 little below it ; all which circumstances greatly de- 

 tract from the effect of the constellation as a whole. 

 Still there is a sort of classic association with it, 

 which must always give it an interest to an European 

 who looks upon it for the first time. 



ASPECT OF THE FOREST. 



It was pleasant to walk out the morning after my 

 arrival at Bluefields, and survey my hunting-ground. 

 It was not so much to collect specimens, nor to 



