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very well through the path we bad made in the ravine the day 
previously, but after that had to slash about us to get along. 
Towards the top we found the vegetation very spare. A short 
time before a party from the ‘‘Forte” with Lieut. Halifax 
had climbed up to it by another road and had left a flag fly- 
ing, but suppose the wind had carried it away for we could 
not find it. They measured the mountain the day of their 
ascent, and gave me the result as 2,998 feet. 
“ The view is very fine from the summit. Looking down 
to the harbour, the coral reefs lay distingly mapped out and 
at this height had a singular appearence. The sea lay calm 
as a mirror and blue as saphire, but the reefs looked like 
sheets of ice grounded near the shore, the edges furrowed and 
indented as if they were begining to skaw. The various islands 
of the group seemed to lie at our feet. The wooded sides of 
the mountains shewed well with their grand Palms and trees and 
bearing flowers whose names I know not ; the surrounding 
peaks seemed so near as if wo could touch them by a stretch 
of the hand. Above, below, all was bright and exhilirating, 
but the spot on which we stood was very dreary, only a little 
coarse grass, a stunded tree or two and the granite rocks 
crumbing beneath our tread from the wear of time, light, air, 
and water. It was late before we returned, and we had little 
to repay us for our toil save the view. In the evening we 
saw many fireflies some of which I secured. In the grass 
round our eyrie we caught some of the Troyidanatus Sey - 
chellensis of different ages and in so varied a dress that 
any one not knowing them must have mistaken them different 
species. Earliest next morning, we were astonished with a 
visit from Sir Arthur Gordon who climbed to our quarters 
alone. Some time after, Mr. A Gordon arrived. We did 
the honours of our mountain homo to our guests, but we 
could not induce His Excellency to remain for breakfast, so 
after a long chat ho left us to return to Mahe for his morning 
meal, which I should think he needed by the time lie arrived 
there. We accompanied him down the spur below our house, 
when he continued his route alone and ho went at a pace 
that shewed ho wos well used to a cross country tramp. 
