CHAP. XXIV.] ROAD TO THE COAL MINES. 39 



my boys out to shoot, and went myself to explore the road 

 to the coal mines. In less than half a mile it entered the 

 virgin forest, at a place where some magnificent trees 

 formed a kind of natural avenue. The first part was flat 

 and swampy, but it soon rose a little, and ran alongside 

 the fine stream which passed behind my house, and 

 which here rushed and gurgled over a rocky or pebbly 

 bed, sometimes leaving wide sandbanks on its margins, 

 and at other places flowing between high banks crowned 

 with a varied and magnificent forest vegetation. After 

 about two miles, the valley narrowed, and the road was 

 carried along the steep hill-side which rose abruptly from 

 the water's edge. In some places the rock had been cut 

 away, but its surface was already covered with elegant 

 ferns and creepers. Gigantic tree-ferns were abundant, 

 and the whole forest had an air of luxuriance and rich 

 variety which it never attains in the dry volcanic soil to 

 which I had been lately accustomed. A Little further the 

 road passed to the other side of the valley by a bridge 

 across the stream at a place where a great mass of rock in 

 the middle offered an excellent support for it, and two miles 

 more of most picturesque and interesting road brought me 

 to the mining establishment. 



This is situated in a large open space, at a spot where 

 two tributaries fall into the main stream. Several forest- 

 paths and new clearings offered fine collecting grounds, 



