432 TAHITI CHAP. 



been less than two hundred. It was the opinion of every one 

 that it would have been difficult to have picked out an equal 

 number from any other nation, who would have given so little 

 trouble. Everybody brought something for sale : shells were 

 the main article of trade. The Tahitians now fully under- 

 stand the value of money, and prefer it to old clothes or other 

 articles. The various coins, however, of English and Spanish 

 denomination puzzle them, and they never seemed to think the 

 small silver quite secure until changed into dollars. Some of 

 the chiefs have accumulated considerable sums of money. One 

 chief, not long since, offered 800 dollars (about £160 sterling) 

 for a small vessel ; and frequently they purchase whale-boats 

 and horses at the rate of from 5 o to 1 00 dollars. 



After breakfast I went on shore, and ascended the nearest 

 slope to a height of between two and three thousand feet. 

 The outer mountains are smooth and conical, but steep ; and 

 the old volcanic rocks, of which they are formed, have been 

 cut through by many profound ravines, diverging from the 

 central broken parts of the island to the coast. Having 

 crossed the narrow low girt of inhabited and fertile land, I 

 followed a smooth steep ridge between two of the deep 

 ravines. The vegetation was singular, consisting almost 

 exclusively of small dwarf ferns, mingled, higher up, with 

 coarse grass ; it was not very dissimilar from that on some of 

 the Welsh hills, and this so close above the orchard of tropical 

 plants on the coast was very surprising. At the highest point 

 which I reached trees again appeared. Of the three zones 

 of comparative luxuriance, the lower one owes its moisture, 

 and therefore fertility, to its flatness ; for, being scarcely raised 

 above the level of the sea, the water from the higher land 

 drains away slowly. The intermediate zone does not, like the 

 upper one, reach into a damp and cloudy atmosphere, and 

 therefore remains sterile. The woods in the upper zone are 

 very pretty, tree-ferns replacing the cocoa-nuts on the coast. 

 It must not, however, be supposed that these woods at all 

 equal in splendour the forests of Brazil. The vast number of 

 productions, which characterise a continent, cannot be expected 

 to occur in an island. 



From the highest point which I attained there was a good 

 view of the distant island of Eimeo, dependent on the same 



