anything which I had ever before beheld. Until the midday sun stood
vertically over the ravine, the air felt cool and damp, but now it
became very sultry. Shaded by 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, with their eyes open followed the
fish into holes and corners, and thus caught 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 this
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 it. 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 by a most extraordinary road. The sides of the
valley were here nearly precipitous, but, as frequently happens with
stratified rocks, small ledges projected, which were thickly covered by
wild bananas, lilaceous 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 a steeply inclined face of 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 one of the three streams. This ledge formed
a flat spot, above which a beautiful cascade, some hundred feet in
height, poured down its waters, and beneath, another high cascade fell
into the main stream in the valley below. From this cool and shady
recess we made a circuit to avoid the overhanging waterfall. As
before, we followed little projecting ledges, the danger being partly
concealed by the thickness of the vegetation. In passing from one of
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