high and low land passes
round them. My retreat, which very appropriately to the circumstances of
my situation bore the name of _The Refuge_, lay two or three miles to the
south-east of the Trois Mamelles.

[* The mean height of the thermometer in July 1805, which is the middle
of winter, was 671/4 deg., and of the barometer in French inches and lines,
26.73/4; and during February 1806, the middle of summer. 76 deg. and 26.53/4 were
the mean heights. At M. Pitot's house in the town of Port Louis, the
averages in the same February were 86 deg. and 27.73/4. According to De Luc,
the difference between the logarithms of the two heights of the barometer
expresses very nearly the difference of elevation in thousand toises,
when the thermometer stands at 70 deg. in both places; and therefore the
approximate elevation of Vacouas above M. Pitot's house, should be

1871/4 toises, or in French feet, 1123
Correction for excess of thermometers above 70 deg., + 25
Supposed elevation of M. Pitot's house above the sea, + 40
----
Elevation of Vacouas in French feet, 1188

The English foot being to the French, as 12 is to 12.816, the height of
Vacouas above the level of the sea should be nearly 1269 English feet.]

The principal rivers in the neighbourhood are the R. du Tamarin and the
R. du Rempart, each branching into two principal arms; these collect all
the smaller streams in this portion of the island, and arriving by
different routes at the same point, make their junction at the head of
the Baye du Tamarin, where their waters are discharged into the sea. In
wet weather these rivers run with great force, but in ordinary times they
do not contain much water; and their smaller branches are mostly dried up
in October and November. Both arms of the R. du Rempart take their rise
between one and two miles to the S. by E. of the Refuge, and within half
a mile of the Mare aux Vacouas, from which it is thought their sources
are derived; the western arm bears the name of R. des Papayas, probably
from the number of those trees found on its banks;* and taking its course
northward, is the boundary between two series of plantations, until it
joins the other branch at the foot of the Montagne du Rempart and its
name is lost. The Refuge was one of these plantations bounded by the R.
des Papayes, being situate on its eastern bank, and receiving