94 THE VOYAGE : PASSING IMPRESSIONS 
It is accomplished by exaggerating the motion of galloping 
yourself on the saddle, kicking your hoels into the animal's 
flanks, and personifying a flying postboy.' 
This day there was time to botanise ; and after dinner 
with the friendly Frenchman they ascended a peak imme- 
diately behind his house, shaped like a steep cone with a 
pinnacle on the top of it, amid prophecies that they would 
break their necks. 
The ascent culminated in an arduous climb, and a descent 
which seemingly could not be worse and was at least fresh, 
on the further side. Swinging down from ledge to ledge, while 
an agitated group of little niggers far below shouted and 
gesticulated unintelligibly, 
I was well rewarded by finding, when about half way 
down, a lovely fern with beautiful soft green foliage growing 
like our Cysto'pteris out of the crevices of the rocks ; it grew 
with lots of the Campanula and Umbelhfer (found on the 
way up) which so put me in mind of old Scottish forms of 
plants, that I only wanted a companion who had botanised 
over Ben Lawers to share my joys with me. [Before re- 
turning,] I emptied my pockets into my travelhng port- 
folio, which I may mention here is the only good way of 
preserving plants in the tropics, and were it not for the 
weight, ought to be looked upon as an indispensable addition 
to the vasculum. The poor withered herbs that I gathered 
on my previous excursions used on my return to be more 
crumpled still from the fiery heat of the sun beating on 
the vasculum, and sorry specimens they have made, though 
invariably put into paper immediately on my return. 
No time was left for geologising, though the relation of 
the Hmestone and the volcanic rocks was an inviting problem. 
But the whole scene left a deep impression, and the Journal 
records : 
Man always looks back with pleasure to such spots as 
. this, where disinterested kindness has been shown him ; 
when to this is added a new country and the charms of a 
scenery half tropical and half — what is dearer still to me — 
Scottish, both as to scenery and general features of a scanty 
