46 AUSTEALASIA. 



thousand plants in good condition. The south-east line terminates on the east 

 coast at Mahéhourg, marking the site of one of the earliest Dutch settlements. 



Mauritius is a crown colony, whose governor, as well as the five members of the 

 executive council, is named by the Queen. According to the modified constitution 

 of 1884-5, eight of the twenty-seven members of the legislative council are ex- officio 

 members, nine are appointed by the governor, and ten elected by citizens enjoying 

 a certain income. The defensive forces consisted in 1887 of four hundred and 

 forty-three men, and half of the military expenditure is defrayed by the home 

 Government. The legislation, partly French and parth^ English, is extremely 

 complicated, affording ample scope for endless litigation, to the great benefit of the 

 lawyers. Although there is no State religion, both the Catholic and Anglican 

 Churches receive State aid, the latter out of proportion to its numbers. Grants are 

 also given to a certain number of schools, which, however, are scarcely numerous 

 enough to afford primary instruction to one-fourth of the children. Mauritius 

 possesses several scientific and literary institutions, and a considerable number of 

 periodicals, as many as six daily papers appearing in the capital. The revenue, 

 although exceeding £700,000, scarcely covers the expenditure, and there is a public 

 debt of over £800,000. The official currency is the Indian rupee of ten to the 

 pound sterling, and the metrical system is obligatory since 1878. 



With the exception of Sokotra, all the English islands in the Indian Ocean, 

 including even the Chagos and other groups belonging geographically to India^ 

 depend administratively on Mauritius. 



EÉUNION. 



The largest of the Mascarenhas, officially designated as " He de la Réunion," 

 but also still known by its old name of Bourbon, presents a smaller extent of 

 arable land and is consequently less densely peopled than Mauritius. The surface 

 consists chiefly of hills and steeply escarped plateaux, fringed by a narrow belt of 

 plains and gently inclined slopes. Hence most of the central parts are nearly 

 uninhabited, the population being confined mainly to a restricted zone of coast- 

 lands. But although it has preserved its romantic aspect. Reunion, like Mauritius, 

 has lost its primeval woodlands, which formerly descended to the water's edge, and 

 earned for the island the title of " Eden." 



The main axis is disposed, not north-east and south-west like that of Mauritius, 

 but north-west and south-east, and in this direction are disposed all the higher 

 crests. At the entrance of the gorges occur a few narrow alluvial or shingly plains, 

 but elsewhere the escarpments rise everywhere abruptly from the water's edge to 

 the plateaux occupying the interior of the island. In the central parts, where the 

 land has been eroded by the running waters, the upland plains exceed 5,000 feet 

 in mean height, the parting line between the two slopes rising in some places even to 

 an altitude of over 6,500 feet, and culminating in the Piton des Neiges, about 

 10,000 feet. Mount Cimandef ("Bonnet Pointu"), a regular pyramid forming a 

 northern shoulder of this piton, although only 7,300 feet, seems to be the 



