On a former occasion I had made an excursion to the summit of La Pouce, a remarkable knob-like peak on the sharp crateriform ridge behind Port Louis. Following a path, leading from the town directly to Wilhelm's Plains, one crosses a small stream and skirts the steep face of the hill over rough ground covered with burnt up grass, and straggling bushes. To this succeeds a region of evergreens (among which the wild mango is the prevailing tree) where a species of monkey introduced many years ago into the island has taken up its abode. I saw none, however, but occasionally heard their chattering as they hurried along among the bushes. Where the path crosses the ridge, it widens out into a succession of rounded eminences, with the summit of La Pouce rising suddenly from its centre in a thumb-like form. Its base is watered by a small gushing rill, and the vegetation now is very luxuriant from the continual supply of moisture. The most striking plants are the tree-ferns (Cyathea excelsa and C. bourbonica) some of which attain a height of from fifteen to twenty feet. From the eastern margin of the ridge the view is very fine; a sloping precipice, several hundred feet in height, covered with stunted bushes, overlooks Wilhelm's Plains, nearly all under cultivation and studded with sugar plantations. The soil, when newly turned up, appeared of a dull red colour. Numbers of tropic birds were flying along the face of the cliff where they probably breed. Eight species of land shells were picked up here, either creeping up the grass or under stones and logs; they were of the genera Caracolla, Helix, and Pupa.
A narrow path, difficult to find among the long grass, leads to the summit of the mountain, 2600 feet above the level of the sea. The view from the top embraces the greater part of this fine island. The coral reef fringing the shores is well seen--the pale green of the shoal water is separated from the deep blue of the ocean by a line of snow-white surf.
THE CEMETERY.
For entomological purposes I frequently visited the Cemetery, numbers of insects being attracted by its flowers and trees. The road leading to it, one of the principal evening drives, is shaded by rows of magnificent casuarinas, from Madagascar. Some five or six widely-separated religious creeds may each here be seen practising their peculiar modes of interment--Chinese, Mahomedan, Hindoo, and Christian; and among the last it was a novelty to me to observe, for the first time, the pleasing custom of decking the graves with fresh flowers, often renewed weekly for years, disposed in jars of various kinds, from the richly ornamented vase down to the humblest piece of crockery. All the low land hereabouts has been borrowed from the sea; it is a mixture of sand and fragments of coral; and the land-crabs have established a colony in one part of the cemetery, and run riot among the graves.
Although well aware of the productiveness of this fine island in marine objects, I was yet unprepared for the sight of upwards of one hundred species of fish, which I frequently witnessed of a morning in the market at Port Louis; but this to me was diminished by the regret that the most skilful taxidermist would signally fail, either to retain upon the prepared skin, or to reproduce, the bright colours for which so many of them are remarkable. Dredging in the harbour was perfectly unsuccessful; outside the margin of the coral reefs which fringe the entrance to Port Louis one finds a zone of loose blocks of living Maeandrinae, Astraeae, and other massive corals, where dredging is impracticable; to this succeeds a belt of dead shells and small fragments of coral; and the remainder of the channel is tenacious mud, in which I found nothing of interest.
LEAVE MAURITIUS.
After a pleasant stay of twelve days, we left Mauritius, on May 17th, as soon as the last set of sights for rating the chronometers had been obtained, and in due time rounded the north end of the island to a light wind off the land. In the first watch a distant light was conjectured, with some degree of probability, to proceed from the well-known active volcano of the Island of Bourbon.
During our stay at Port Louis, Captain Stanley had complied with a requisition from the Commissariat to take some specie to Hobart Town, consequently his previous intention of proceeding to Sydney, by way of King George Sound, was abandoned.
On May 24th (our noon position being in latitude 28 degrees 1 minute South, and longitude 67 degrees 30 minutes East) we tacked to the South-West, having found the impracticability of making a straight course for Cape Leeuwin without first getting well to the southward, and in due time we reached the latitudes where westerly winds prevail, and were enabled to proceed onward on our course.
TRY FOR DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS.