TOPOGRAPHY OF THE ISLAND

Into the silent land!

Ah, who shall lead us thither?

VON SALIS.

There is no spot on earth more free from care, worry and unrest than the island of Tahiti. The abundance with which nature here has provided for the wants of man, the uniform soothing climate, the calmness of the Pacific Ocean, the pleasing scenery quiet the nerves, induce sleep and reduce to a minimum the efforts of man in the struggle for life. It is the island of peace, contentment and rest, a paradise on earth.

No writer has ever done justice to the natural beauties of this gem of the South Seas. The towering mountains, the tropical forests, the numerous rippling streams of crystal water, shaded dark ravines, the palm-fringed shore, the lagoons with their quiet, peaceful, clear waters painted in most exquisite colors of all shades of green, blue and salmon by the magic influence of the tropical sun, their outside wall of coral reef ceaselessly kissed by the caressing, foaming, moaning surf, the near-by picturesque island of Moorea, with its precipitous mountains rising from the deep bed of the sea, the flat basin-like, palm-fringed atolls in the distance, and the vast ocean beyond, make up a combination of pictures of which the mind never tires, and which engrave themselves indelibly on the tablet of memory.

Tahiti is a typical mountain island, protected against the aggressive ocean by a coral reef which forms almost a complete wall around it, enclosing lagoons of much beauty, which teem with a great variety of fish. It is thirty-five miles in length, and on an average twelve miles in breadth. It is shaped somewhat in the form of an hourglass, the narrow part at Isthmus Terrawow. The circuit of the island by following the coast is less than one hundred and twenty miles. The ninety-mile drive which engirdles the island cuts off some of the irregular projections into the sea. The interior is very mountainous and cut into ravines so deep that it has never been inhabited to any extent. The highest peaks are Orohena and Aorii, from seven to eight thousand feet in height, the former cleft into two points of rock which are often draped with dark masses of tropic clouds. Numerous other peaks of lesser magnitude are crowded together in the center of the island, their broad foundations encroaching upon the plain. The people live on the narrow strip of low land at the base of the mountains and running down to the shore, where the soil is exceedingly fertile and always well watered by numerous rivers, brooks and rivulets. Numberless cascades can be seen from the ninety-mile drive, leaping over cliffs and appearing like silver threads in the dark green of the mountain-sides. The strip of arable land at the base of the mountains varies in width from the bare precipitous cliffs, without even a beach, to one, or perhaps in the widest places, two miles. The larger streams have cut out a few broader valleys. It is this narrow strip of land which is inhabited, the little villages being usually located near the mouth of a river on the coast-line, insuring for the inhabitants a pure water-supply and facilities for fresh-water bathing, a frequent and pleasant pastime for the natives of both sexes and all ages.

Wherever there is sufficient depth of soil, vegetation is rampant. The fertility of the soil and the stimulating effect of constant moisture on vegetable life are best seen by the vitality exhibited by the fence-posts. I have seen fence-posts a foot and more in circumference, after being implanted in the soil, strike root, sprout and develop into trees of no small size. The mountains, and more especially the ravines, are heavily timbered. There is no place on earth where the scenery is more beautiful and sublime than at many points along the ninety-mile drive. The lofty mountains, the fertile plain, the many rivers, brooks, rivulets and glimpses of foaming cascades, lagoons, of the surf beating the coral reef in the distance, the limitless ocean beyond, the luxuriant rampant vegetation, the beautiful flowers, the majestic palm-trees, the quaint villages and their interesting inhabitants, form a picture which is beautiful, and, at the same time, sublime. As a whole it is sublime; in detail, beautiful.

Beauty charms, sublimity awes us, and is often accompanied with a feeling resembling fear; while beauty rather attracts and draws us towards it.

FLEMING.