letter viii.] THE MEXICAN SADDLE. 



75 



narrow, deep ravines or gorges, from 100 to 2000 feet in depth, 

 each with a series of cascades from 10 to t8oo feet in height. 

 I dislike reducing their glories to the baldness of figures, but 

 the depth of these clefts (originally, probably, the seams caused 

 by fire torrents), cut and worn by the fierce streams fed by the 

 snows of Mauna Kea, and the rains of the forest belt, cannot 

 otherwise be expressed. The cascades are most truly beautiful, 

 gleaming white among the dark depths of foliage far away, and 

 falling into deep limpid basins, festooned and overhung with 

 the richest and greenest vegetation of this prolific climate, 

 from the huge-leaved banana and shining breadfruit to the 

 most feathery of ferns and lycopodiums. Each gulch opens 

 on a velvet lawn close to the sea, and most of them have space 

 for a few grass houses, with cocoanut trees, bananas and kalo 

 patches. There are sixty-nine of these extraordinary chasms 

 within a distance of thirty miles ! 



I think we came through eleven, fording the streams in all 

 but two. The descent into some of them is quite alarming. 

 You go down almost standing in your stirrups, at a right angle 

 with the horse's head, and up, grasping his mane to prevent 

 the saddle slipping. He goes down like a goat, with his bare 

 feet, looking cautiously at each step, sometimes putting out a 

 foot and withdrawing it again in favour of better footing, and 

 sometimes gathering his four feet under him and sliding or 

 jumping. The Mexican saddle has great advantages on these 

 tracks, which are nothing better than ledges cut on the sides 

 of precipices, for one goes up and down not only in perfect 

 security but without fatigue. I am beginning to hope that I 

 am not too old, as I feared I was, to learn a new mode of 

 riding, for my companions rode at full speed over places where 

 I should have picked my way carefully at a foot-pace ; and 

 my horse followed them, galloping and stopping short at their 

 pleasure, and I successfully kept my seat, though not without 

 occasional fears of an ignominious downfall. I even wish that 

 you could see me in my Rob Roy riding dress, with leather 

 belt and pouch, a lei of the orange seeds of the pandanus round 

 my throat, jingling Mexican spurs, blue saddle blanket, and 

 Rob Roy blanket strapped on behind the saddle ! 



This place is grandly situated 600 feet above a deep cove, 

 into which two beautiful gulches of great size run, with heavy 

 cascades, finer than Foyers at its best, and a native village is 

 picturesquely situated between the two. The great white 

 rollers, whiter, by contrast with the dark deep water, come into 



