66 



THE AMERICAX XATIKAIIST. r\ . u . XX XV 1 1 1 . 



appear to have changed at all in height, but had notlnng hap- 

 pened to the waters of the lake Xoono knew, tor no one had 

 been there since the eruption of August 5th. and on this account 

 Messrs. Le Prieur and Peyraud resolved to explore the summit 

 on 4th Sept. The trail to the summit of Mt. Pelce is more 

 travelled than that which leads to the craters. The inhabitants 

 of St. Pierre sometimes make picnic excursions to the summit. 

 Leaving the Eynard House near the base of the mountain, the 

 spur is followed which leads beside and overhangs the ravine of 

 the Riviere Seche. For three quarters of an hour one passes 

 cultivated lands, the earth there being loose and formed of frag- 

 mentary pumice covered by a thin bed of vegetable mold which 

 IS very permeable ; vegetables are raised on these slopes. Then 

 the traveller comes to the great woods, fig trees covered by 

 vegetable parasites, and long lianas which climb to the very 

 summits of these forest giants and then swing back to earth 

 where they throw out roots and form a dense mass of vegetation 

 entirely distinctive of the tropics. On leaving these woods at 

 the end of an hour, the trees are seen to grow smaller and are 

 gradually replaced by low shrubby and herbaceous vegetation ; 

 but none the less the botanist finds here too a constant source 

 of delight. I saw, wrote Mr." Le Prieur, superb flowers worthy 

 of hot-houses, especially two superb cromelias, the one with a 

 long spike of flowers, the other with yellow and red flowers ; 

 there are the Brazilian huckleberries, with violet-red flowers ■ 

 three beautiful species of lobelia, with great flowers which recall 

 some of the fields of certain portions of France. This last plant 

 IS fonnrl about the lake, and on the humid slopes leading to 



'Tiinating point of the mountain so 



a r ' P^^CQd there. In general, of all 



the floras of the Antilles, that of Martinique is least known 

 because of the tngonocephalus, whose terrible reputation fright- 

 ens away the hardiest botanist. Our explorers started at seven 

 o clock and reached the lake at half past ten. According to the 

 guides who are accustomed to the place no change has taken 

 phice "1 the lake. It is some three hundred paces in circumfer- 

 ence ; the thermometer gave a temperature in air of 19° and in 



