THE FOKEST. 
41 
elevation may be a hundred feet, sloping down gently 
to the shore. 
THE SOUTHERN CROSS. 
A few days after my arrival, I had set out some 
time before dawn, to go in a canoe round the neigh- 
bouring shore. As I walked along the road to 
Belmont, suddenly and unexpectedly the Southern 
Cross caught my eye, close to the meridian, and 
therefore erect. My first emotion was a gush of 
pleasure, at seeing what I had so often read of, and 
wished to see; my next, a feeling of disappoint- 
ment at its efiect. I had expected a much more 
splendid constellation; if I had not known its form 
from books, I do not think I should ever have been 
struck with it, or hardly have noticed any resemblance 
to a cross ; the westernmost star is too near the 
beam, and too high, to be symmetrical with the 
opposite one ; it is much inferior, too, in magnitude ; 
and there is another star, quite supernumerary, a 
little below it ; all which circumstances greatly de- 
tract from the efiect of the constellation as a whole. 
Still there is a sort of classic association with it, 
which must always give it an interest to an European 
who looks upon it for the first time. 
ASPECT OF THE FOREST. 
It was pleasant to walk out the morning after my 
arrival at Bluefields, and survey my hunting-ground. 
It was not so much to collect specimens, nor to 
