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walls. Animal life is almost unseen : the solitude is 

 scarcely broken by the voices of birds, except that 

 now and then the Rainbird and the Hunter (large 

 cat-tailed cuckoos that love the shade) sound their 

 startling rattle, or the Mountain Partridge utters 

 those mournful cooings which are like the moans of 

 a dying man. Such a scene however is the favourite 

 haunt of Erehus odora, a gigantic Moth, which often, 

 as we pass, darts out, like a great bat, from its con- 

 cealment in the dark corner of two tree-spurs, or a 

 hollow in the rock, and dances with a perplexing 

 irregularity hither and thither, till it suddenly settles 

 again, or is lost in the maze of stems. 



Returning to the foot of the hill, if we follow the 

 right-hand track, the scene is widely different. Here 

 were formerly the provision grounds of the negroes 

 belonging to Grand Vale ; but these having been 

 thrown up, a dense growth of small wood has accumu- 

 lated, consisting chiefly of Bastard Cedar, Sweetwood, 

 Prickly-yellow, with a scattering of Mahogany and 

 Logwood. The path is narrow ; and though the 

 bushes are low, they meet overhead, so that we ride 

 in shade ; but it is the " greenwood shade," that the 

 old ballads delight to describe ; for a soft, green light 

 penetrates through the pellucid foliage, and the rays 

 of the sun, reflected from the glossy surface of the 

 dancing leaves, flash and sparkle like a thousand 

 diamonds, throwing an indescribable air of cheerful- 

 ness over the scene. A little way from the path 

 there is a natural well of considerable depth, at the 

 bottom of which is an unfailing spring of clear water, 

 always cool ; the negro children scramble down its 



