th 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