SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS. 17 
there is the wildness of romance about the deep 
and lonely glens, around which the mountains rise 
like the steep sides of a natural amphitheatre, till 
the clouds seem supported by them—this arrests 
the attention of the beholder, and for a time 
suspends his faculties in mute astonishment. 
There is also so much that is new in the character 
and growth of trees and flowers, irregular, spon¬ 
taneous, and luxuriant in the vegetation, which 
is sustained by a prolific soil, and matured by the 
genial heat of a tropic clime/that it is adapted to 
produce an indescribable effect. Often, when, 
either alone, or attended by one or two com¬ 
panions, I have journeyed through some of the 
inland parts of the islands, such has been the effect 
of the scenery through which I have passed, and the 
unbroken stillness which has pervaded the whole, 
that imagination, unrestrained, might easily have 
induced the delusion, that we were walking on 
enchanted ground, or passing over fairy lands. It 
has at such seasons appeared as if we had been 
carried back to the primitive ages of the world, and 
beheld the face of the earth, as it was perhaps often 
exhibited, when the Creator’s works were spread 
over it in all their endless variety, and all the 
vigour of exhaustless energy, and before population 
had extended, or the genius and enterprise of man 
had altered the aspect of its surface. 
The valleys of Tahiti present some of the richest 
inland scenery that can be imagined. Those in the 
southern parts are remarkable for their beauty, but 
none more so than those of Hautaua, Matavai, and 
Apaiano. Those portions of them, in which the 
incipient effects of civilization appear, are the most 
interesting; presenting the neat white plastered 
cottages in beautiful contrast with the picturesque 
c 
