RECROSS THE SANDY SEA. J5 



Nov. 19. — We did not hurry ourselves this morn- 

 ing, as we had only ten pauls to go to Tosari, where 

 we were to pass the night. We amused ourselves 

 in watching the fog as it boiled up the steep ravines 

 about us and curled over our heads. M. Zollinger 

 now set me right as to those noble trees which are 

 such a great ornament to these mountain summits, 

 and which I had hitherto taken for some kind of 

 pine. He told me they were casuarinas, which 

 genus, as I had only seen the small casuarinas of 

 Australia with their drooping shrub-like branches, 

 I had no idea ever assumed such a stately appear- 

 ance. At eight o'clock we set out, returning first 

 of all to the Sandy sea, by the road we had come 

 down from it yesterday. On reaching it we turned 

 to the right, and proceeded for two or three miles to 

 its western side, when we climbed up the precipi- 

 tous boundary-wall by a narrow zig-zag path of 

 great steepness, and often very slippery, the clay 

 being wet with yesterday's rain. The height of the 

 wall at this place was at least 800 feet. Our spirited 

 little horses seemed quite used to this kind of path, 

 stopping now and then to get breath, and then can- 

 tering up the steepest and worst places, digging their 

 hoofs into the holes and steps that were worn in the 

 ground, and clutching as it were at any projecting 

 prominence. They often cantered and scrambled 

 up places so steep that we were obliged to throw 

 ourselves on their necks to preserve our equilibrium. 

 However, we thought this was taxing the willing 



