290 SOCIETY ISLANDS. 
These descriptions of valleys and ridges are not given as mere 
landscape sketches. The geologist sees, in these lofty heights or 
mountain walls, and the profound gorges that divide them, evidence 
with regard to the agents that have been engaged in producing 
these results. Probably, no twenty miles square, on any continent, 
can present effects of either denudation or volcanic subsidence, or of 
both combined, more wonderful and instructive. We shall not be 
accused of degrading scientific reports by mere journalising, if we 
continue our description of the ridges, by mentioning a few incidents 
connected with the ascent of Mount Aorai by the author. 
We commenced the ascent by the ridge on the west side of the 
Matavai Valley, and, by the skilfulness of our guide, were generally 
able to keep the elevated parts of the ridge without descending into 
the deep valleys which bordered our path.* An occasional descent, 
glimpse, now one, and then another, section of the upper regions. ‘The summit, which 
we repeatedly caught, as it stood immovable among the shifting clouds, seemed, on the 
western quarter, perpendicular, on the north, making an angle of 60° and then 50°. On 
our left, we particularly remarked a solitary range of black rocks, high and inaccessible, 
shutting out the sky beyond, and so terminating the view that imagination itself, however 
active amid such scenes as surrounded us, would hardly have dreamed of an object be- 
yond it. Yet, while we took our refreshment under a shady recess, and were still con- 
templating, with an eye ‘not satisfied with seeing,’ the clouded majesty of Orohena, the 
apparition of a rival mountain rose unexpectedly from behind the craggy screen just men- 
tioned, and stood between heaven and earth, more as if of the former than the latter. It 
was some time before we could reconcile and harmonise the parts of the magnificent 
spectacle, or conceive by what enchantment its grandest feature had been so suddenly 
disclosed.” 
* Very few of the natives then living had ever been to the summit of this mountain, 
and we found great difficulty in obtaining a guide acquainted with the route. Paths lead 
as far as the Felis, (pronounced Fayees,) or mountain plantains, an elevation of one 
thousand to fifteen hundred feet; but, beyond this, the tops of the ridges are mostly 
covered with a wiry brake (Gleichenium), which grows, in some places, to a height 
of ten feet, and is almost impenetrable. In order to pass through it, we had to break it 
down by throwing our bodies at full length upon it, or by diving into it; or, where too high 
to adinit of this mode of progress, we had recourse to burrowing, pushing aside and break- 
ing off its crowded stems, and thus we dug our way for rods. In addition to the brake, 
the shrubbery often formed a dense thicket, impassable except with a hatchet. ‘These ob- 
stacles made our progress slow, and without a native to lead the way, the jaunt, difficult 
in itself, would have been quite impracticable, in the five days allotted to it. Another dis- 
comfort on the route was the want of water, which, after a few days of dry weather, is 
seldom to be found in the valleys near the summit. A traveller in the mountains of Tahiti 
should go well provided against this inconvenience. We found dew from the leaves a 
great luxury, and the news that water had been found in a valley created a sensation of 
pleasure scarcely describable. 
