434 
TAHITI 
CHAP 
7000 feet. The whole island is so mountainous that the only 
way to penetrate into the interior is to follow up the valleys. 
Our road, at first, lay through woods which bordered each side 
of the river ; and the glimpses of the lofty central peaks, seen 
as through an avenue, with here and there a waving cocoa-nut 
tree on one side, were extremely picturesque. The valley 
soon began to narrow, and the sides to grow lofty and more 
precipitous. After having walked between three and four 
hours, we found the width of the ravine scarcely exceeded that 
of the bed of the stream. On each hand the walls were nearly 
vertical ; yet, from the soft nature of the volcanic strata, trees 
and a rank vegetation sprung from every projecting ledge. 
These precipices must have been some thousand feet high ; 
and the whole formed a mountain gorge far more magnificent 
than anything which I had ever before beheld. Until the 
mid-day sun stood vertically over the ravine, the air felt cool 
and damp, but now it became very sultry. Shaded by a ledge 
of rock, beneath a fagade of columnar lava, we ate our dinner. 
My guides had already procured a dish of small fish and fresh¬ 
water prawns. They carried with them a small net stretched 
on a hoop ; and where the water was deep and in eddies, they 
dived, and like otters, with their eyes open followed the fish 
into holes and corners, and thus caught them. 
The Tahitians have the dexterity of amphibious animals 
in the water. An anecdote mentioned by Ellis shows how 
much they feel at home in this element. When a horse was 
landing for Pomarre in 1817, the slings broke, and it fell into 
the water ; immediately the natives jumped overboard, and by 
their cries and vain efforts at assistance almost drowned it. 
As soon, however, as it reached the shore, the whole population 
took to flight, and tried to hide themselves from the man¬ 
carrying pig, as they christened the horse. 
A little higher up, the river divided itself into three little 
streams. The two northern ones were impracticable, owing to 
a succession of waterfalls which descended from the jagged 
summit of the highest mountain ; the other to all appearance 
was equally inaccessible, but we managed to ascend it by a 
most extraordinary road. The sides of the valley were here 
nearly precipitous ; but, as frequently happens with stratified 
rocks, small ledges projected, which were thickly covered by 
