48 AUSTEALASIA. 



soutli-west side of Reunion, where old coralline beaches are seen rising above the 

 present coastline. But owing to the great depth of the surrounding waters, coral 

 reefs, such as those that completely encircle Mauritius, are somewhat rare on the 

 shores of the sister island. 



Besides its symmetrical volcanic formations, Reunion is also remarkable for the 

 wonderful cirques formed by the erosive action of the tropical rains. On the west 

 side occur three of these vast funnel-shaped basins with intervening narrow 

 ridges radiating from the central mass of the Gros Morne, the whole being thus 

 disposed " like a three-leaved shamrock." These deep chasms — Cilaos, Mafate, 

 and Salazie — sources respectively of the rivers St. Etienne, Galets, and Mât, 

 have each their thermal waters, of which the most efficacious is that of Mafate, 

 which abounds in sulphur. In the neighbourhood rises the isolated mountain 

 mass of the Piton d'Enchein, with a romantic lakelet at its foot. 



In their general disposition the insular streains present the character of Alpine 

 torrents, destructive in their upper courses, and farther down depositing the débris 

 produced by their erosive action. The vastness of these erosions may be judged 

 from the fact that the Salazie cirque alone has been excavated to the extent of no 

 less than 3,000,000 cubic feet. The process of denudation is still going on, and 

 oven increasing, owing to the destruction of the forests on the mountain slopes, the 

 hand of man thus tending to transform a naturally fertile island into a barren 

 rock. 



The dwarf bamboo {hamhusa a/pi»a), locally known by the name of "calumet," 

 forms on the hillsides a sharj^ly defined vegetable zone between the altitudes of 

 4,500 and 5,000 feet. Farther up the plateaux and higher summits are partly 

 clothed with the hubertia, a large shrub with gnarled twisted stem, which throws 

 off numerous smooth branches bearing large clusters of yellow blossom. 



As in Mauritius, the chief industry is the cultivation of the sugar-cane, combined 

 with sugar refining and the distillation of rum. Since the wars of the Empire 

 the sugar plantations have gradually supplanted all other cultivated plants on the 

 coastland up to an altitude of from 2,800 to over 3,000 feet, yielding an average 

 yearly crop of thirty thousand to forty thousand tons. Formerly the annual crop 

 was estimated at sixty thousand tons, but this industry has suffered much from 

 various forms of blight as well as from the competition of beetroot sugar. During 

 the last century coffee was the staple product in Bourbon, where a native variety 

 [coffea Mauriciana) had been discovered, but at present the only important coffee 

 plantations are those of St. Leu and St. Pierre. The clove, which formerly 

 contributed to enrich the island, has ceased to be grown, but on the other hand 

 vanilla has become one of the chief articles of export, the yield amounting in 1887 

 to about a hundred and fifty thousand pounds more than that of any other colony, 

 and alone sufficient to supply the whole of Europe. Neither tea, the vine, nor 

 cotton are grown, but cinchona has lately been acclimatised, and in 1888 as many 

 as 26,700 of this valuable plant were already flourishing in the island. 



But, as in Mauritius, the development of these plantations has been attendea 

 by a corresponding reduction in the growth of alimentary plants, and notwith- 



