ft
' I t :
486 Nov. 1835.
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 any thing which I had ever before beheld.
Until the mid-day sun stood vertically over the ravine, the
air had felt cool and damp, but now it became verj' sultry.
Shaded hy a ledge of rock, beneath a facade 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,
by their eyesight followed the fish into holes and corners,
and thus secured 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 that 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 the animal. 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 hy a most extraordinary road. The sides of
Nov. 1835. E x c u i t s i o . v i n t o t h e m o u n t a i n s .
the valley were here nearly precipitous; but, as frequently
happens with stratified rocks, small ledges projected, which
were thickly covered by wild bananas, liliaceous plants,
and other luxuriant productions of the tropics. The Tahitians,
by climbing amongst these ledges, searching for fruit,
had discovered a track by which the whole precipice could
be scaled. The first ascent from the valley was very dangerous
: for it was necessary to pass the face of a naked rock,
by the aid of ropes, which we brought with us. How any
person discovered that this formidable spot was the only
point where the side of the mountain was practicable, I
cannot imagine. We then cautiously walked along one of
the ledges, till we came to the stream already alluded to.
This ledge formed a flat spot, above which a beautiful
cascade, of some hundred feet, poured down its waters, and
beneath it another high one emptied itself into the main
stream. From this cool and shady recess, we made a
circuit to avoid the overhanging cascade. As before, we
followed little projecting ledges, the apparent danger being
partly hidden by the thickness of the vegetation. In passing
from one of the ledges to another, there was a vertical
wall of rock. One of the Tahitians, a fine active man,
placed the trunk of a tree against this, climbed up it, and
then by the aid of crevices reached the summit. He fixed
the ropes to a projecting point, and lowered them for us,
then hauled up a dog which accompanied us, and lastly
our luggage. Beneath the ledge on which the dead tree
was placed the precipice must have been five or six hundred
feet deep; and if the abyss had not been partly concealed
by the overhanging ferns and lilies, my head would have
turned gidd)', and nothing should have induced me to have
attempted it. We continued to ascend sometimes along
ledges, and sometimes along knife-edged ridges, having on
each hand profound ravines. In the Cordillera, I have seen
mountains on a far grander scale, but for abruptness, no
part of them at all comparable to this. In the evening we
reached a flat little spot on the banks of the same stream.