220 Letter XVII. 
You have all the shades arid tints requisite for a lovely 
picture—distant range, light blue ; Mont D’Or, red, brown, and 
yellow ; the foreground green, brown, &c., and the sea and sky 
deep blue. ; 
Mont D’Or, New Caledonia. 
The roads which run out from Noumea are capital and nu- 
merous, all being the work of the convicts. Going out in one 
direction we visited the racecourse one day, while on another 
occasion we went by another road, eight or ten miles out to an 
auberge, and there, sitting under a shady tree, tried the French 
drink absinthe. Sickly stuff I thought it, and resolved to taste 
it no more. Every here and there along these roads we passed 
bands of convicts at work, well guarded by armed sentries—all 
of whom, the prisoners as well as soldiers, saluted us with truly 
French politeness. 
The country has in many places a most striking resemblance 
to some parts of Victoria, a tree which grows plentifully in the 
bush, being very like the stringy-bark of that colony. The 
