OPERATIONS IN HUAHINE. 273 
priated to their own use. In this there was not 
much difficulty, the whole district was before us, 
and but few places, except in the vicinity of the 
shore, had been selected by the people, who were 
waiting till we had made our choice, that they 
might build as near our dwelling as would be 
convenient. 
We explored the district carefully, but often 
found the brushwood, and interlaced branches of 
the trees, so impervious, that, without a hatchet, 
we should have penetrated but a short distance 
from the winding paths trodden by the natives. 
The soil was good throughout; and, as the people 
had chosen the most eligible places along the 
shore, we fixed upon a small elevation near the 
junction of two clear and rapid streamlets, about 
a quarter of a mile from the entrance of the valley 
of Mahamene. It was at this time a complete 
wilderness, overgrown with weeds and brushwood. 
We commenced preparing it for the site of our 
dwelling; and when cleared, it was a most de¬ 
lightful spot. 
A stream rolled at the bottom of a steep bank, 
about twenty yards from our house. Two or three 
aged and stately chesnut - trees growing on the 
margin of this bank, extended their branches over 
the stream and the bank, casting around a grateful 
and an inviting shelter from the noontide sun. 
Immediately behind this spot, Matoereere , a black 
rock, the loftiest mountain in the island, towered 
in majesty above the surrounding hills. The lower 
part of the mountain appears basaltic ; the central 
strata are composed of a vesicular kind of volcanic 
rock, while the upper parts are a large kind of 
breccia. It is verdant to its summit, which is of 
a beautiful conic shape, supported by a perpen- 
II. T 
