1696.] DANGEROUS LABYEINTH. 203 



iniddle of the Country in a great Plain^ environ'd with 

 Mountains, there is a Wood that is very dangerous to go 

 into. The Branches of the Trees are so thick at top, and so 

 interlac'd with one another, that it is altogether impossible 

 to see the Sun, by which means one wanders one knows not 

 whither, and oftentimes one is lost as it were in a Labyrinth, 

 which Misfortune is so much the greater, in that one meets 

 wdth nothing to eat. 



1 " Plain and Forest." The Abbe de la Caille states that in 1753, 

 when he surveyed the island : " The Isle of France is almost entirely 

 covered with woods, which are of a handsome appearance, particu- 

 larly on the south-east side ; but a passage through is rendered very 

 difficult and troublesome, from the quantity of fern and creeping 

 plants. These plants, whose branches, like those of our ivy, wind 

 about and interlace themselves with the shrubs and dead wood, render 

 the forests in a great measure impassable. Nor can a passage be 

 obtaioed in any part of them but by circuitous ways, which are 

 known to few. These forests are the refuge of the Maroon negroes.'' 

 He has marked '■'■ ForH tres Epaisse', N.VV. of the Montague des 

 Creoles, in the Municipality of Grand Port, in his map. 



]\Ir. Pike says : " The ascent on the Grand Port side is so rugged 

 and steep, that it is called I'Escalier, and between it and the Riviere 

 Tabac stands a fair-sized village. Beyond this lies a tract of countrj"-, 

 in former times a dense forest, containing such fine timber-trees that 

 it obtained the name of Gros Bois. From the destruction of these 

 trees, even so early as the time of occupation by the Dutch, doubtless 

 many species, once abundant, are now rare, if not wholly extinct. 

 The reckless way the trees were cut down by the crews of every vessel 

 that touched here must have made great changes in the forests. During 

 the present century the same want of system has prevented the growth 

 to full size of the best timber. In the Gros Bois are still fine specimens 

 of Calophyllum^hwi they are rare. The Tatamaka, Elteodendron, Colo- 

 phon, and two species of ebony yet abound, and a host of others." 

 {Op. cit., p. 320.) " The East India Company set apart, for their forges 

 at Mondesir, an extent of wood of ten thousand acres called the 

 Reserves ; they then imagined that, by making regular falls of timber 

 in these lofty woods, they would shoot forth again the following year, 

 and that the young trees, being left untouched, would replace the 

 larger ones. But it was found that the woods, once cut down, did not 

 grow again ; and, in the year 1770, the people at Mondesir were 

 obliged to go a league and a half to fetch charcoal.'' (Le Gentil, l. c, 

 ii, p. 680.) 



