roduce of this secluded part of Mauritius, may probably be acceptable to
some readers.

The district or quarter called Wilhems Plains, occupies a considerable
portion of the interior of the island; its northern extremity borders on
the sea by the side of the district of Port Louis, from which it is
separated by the Grande Riviere; and it extends southward from thence,
rising gradually in elevation and increasing in breadth. The body of the
quarter is bounded to the N. E. by the district of Mocha--to the S. E. by
that of Port Bourbon or the Grand Port--to the south by the quarter of La
Savanne--and to the west by the Plains of St. Pierre. Its length from the
sea to the Grand Bassin at its southern extremity, is about five
geographic leagues in a straight line, and mean breadth nearly two
leagues; whence the superficial extent of this district should not be
much less than ninety square miles. In the upper part is a lake called
the _Mare aux Vacouas_, apparently so named from the number of pandanus
trees, called vacouas, on its borders; and that part of Wilhems Plains by
which the lake is surrounded, at the distance of a league, more or less,
bears the appellation of Vacouas; in this part my residence was situate,
in a country overspread with thick woods, a few plantations excepted,
which had been mostly cleared within a few years.

In consequence of the elevation of Vacouas, the climate is as much
different from that of the low parts of the island as if it were several
degrees without the tropic; June, July, and August are the driest months
at Port Louis, but here they are most rainy, and the thermometer stands
from 7 deg. to 12 deg. lower upon an average throughout the year.* In a west
direction, across that part of the Plains of St. Pierre called Le
Tamarin, the sea is not more distant than six miles; the descent is
therefore rapid, and is rendered more so from three-fourths of the space
being flat, low land; in comparison with Le Tamarin, Vacouas is in fact
an irregular plain upon the top of the mountains, to which there is
almost no other access than by making a circuit of four or five miles
round by the lower part of Wilhems Plains. Three rugged peaks called the
Trois Mamelles, and another, the Montagne du Rempart, all of them
conspicuous at sea, are the highest points of a ridge somewhat elevated
above this irregular plain, and bounding it to the westward; and the road
forming the ordinary communication between the