i 82 
THE MASCARENES 
completely shut in on the west by Cape St. Ber¬ 
nard with its masses of basalt sloping steeply towards 
the sea, so that the railway from St. Paul has to pass 
through a long tunnel. The houses are generally of one 
storey and are built of wood. The public buildings as 
well as the villas lying outside the town are of solid 
masonry. The streets are straight and intersect at right 
angles. The main artery for trade is the broad Rue de 
Paris with the Townhall, the Governor’s palace, and a 
monument to Mahe de Labourdonnais, who did so much 
for the prosperity of the colony. At the end of the 
Rue de Paris we reach the Museum of Natural History, 
which is very well organized considering the moderate 
resources at command. It displays the fauna of the 
Mascarene islands and Madagascar in delightful com¬ 
pleteness. 
Adjoining this is a Botanical garden with splendid 
groups of palms, bamboos and fig-trees, in whose shade 
the Creole population is wont to seek recreation. In 
the east of the city lies the Military Hospital as well 
as the spacious barracks. Outside the town is a lazar 
house for lepers, where the patients, some 50 in 
number, are tended by nuns; a few convicts from the 
galleys are entrusted with the duty of keeping watch 
over the sick. 
Among noteworthy public works in the remaining part 
of the island, besides the circular railway already men¬ 
tioned, the new harbour at the Pointe des Galets must 
be particularized. This artificial harbour was constructed 
at a cost of T2,280,000. It covers an extent of 40 
acres. As it has a depth of 26 feet, even large steamers 
can take shelter in it. The harbour is but little exposed 
to the cyclones, as these are pretty well spent and 
have lost their violence by the time they reach the 
prominent Pointe des Galets. The whole population of 
the island was put down at 167,847 souls in 1896, so 
