28 Letters from J. MacGillivray, Esq. 



passed very agreeably, and it is one of the few places which I 

 ever left with regret. 



One morning I walked out to Pamplemouse, a village seven 

 miles distant, for the joint purpose of visiting the Botanic Gar- 

 den, and collecting a few flowers from the tombs of " Paul and 

 Virginia " for some album-keeping friends at home. The shady 

 walks, the rivulets and ponds of water in the garden are unex- 

 ceptionable, and for solitary rambles and the holding of merry 

 picnic parties these cool retreats are admirably adapted, but L 

 looked in vain for any indication of botanical arrangement. In 

 a coffee grove adjoining " Les Tombeaux n I procured numbers 

 of a small Helix [R. 354], and the fine but common Achatina 

 Mauritiana. The latter burrows in the earth during dry weather, 

 but some heavy rain which had fallen during the night brought 

 it out in great numbers. In a brook by the road-side I found a 

 decollated Pirena [R. 359], and a neighbouring pond furnished 

 specimens of Melania Amarula. 



Another day I paid a visit to the summit of La Pouce, which 

 rises in a pinnacled form to the height of 2600 feet. The view 

 from the summit is magnificent, embracing nearly the whole of 

 the island. From this spot a good view of the coral reefs may 

 be obtained ; the pale green of the shoal water is separated from 

 the deep blue of the ocean by a line of snow-white surf. Here 

 are some luxuriant tree-ferns, fifteen to twenty feet in height, 

 which an English botanist would scarcely recognise as generically 

 identical with his delicate Cyatheafragilis. On the shoulder of 

 the mountain I procured eight species of land shells, Caracolla 

 Mauritiana, and some Helices and Pupae. A steep cliff covered 

 with brushwood facing Wilhelm's Plains is resorted to by tropic 

 birds (Ph. cethereus), many of which I saw wheeling along the 

 face of the precipice several hundred feet below me. 



I anticipated great success from dredging in Port Louis, but, 

 during a day's work, only two live species of mollusca of any 

 consequence, a Mitra and a Pleurotoma*, were procured. Outside 

 the margin of the coral reefs which fringe the entrance of the 

 harbour, and to which a person may walk at low water, one finds 

 a zone of loose blocks of living Meandrince, Astrcece and other 

 massive corals, among which dredging is impracticable ; to this 

 succeeds a belt of dead shells and small fragments of coral ; and 

 the remainder of the channel is tenacious and unproductive mud. 

 Although well-aware of the productiveness of this beautiful island 

 in marine objects, I was yet unprepared for the sight of upwards 

 of 100 species of fish, which I frequently witnessed of a morning 

 in the market of Port Louis. Many of them, especially among 



* P. variegata. 



