from it an
accession of value; for this arm does not dry up in the most unfavourable
seasons, neither does it overflow in the hurricanes.

[* The papaye, papaya, or papaw, is a tree well known in the East and
West Indies, and is common in Mauritius; the acrid milk of the green
fruit, when softened with an equal quantity of honey, is considered to be
the best remedy against worms, with which the negroes and young children,
who live mostly on vegetable diet, are much troubled.]

The eastern arm bears the name of R. du Rempart throughout, from its
source near the _mare_ or lake to its embouchure. Its course is nearly
parallel to that of the sister stream, the distance between them varying
only from about half a mile to one hundred and twenty yards; and the
Refuge, as also the greater number of plantations on the eastern, or
right bank of the R. des Papayes, is divided by it into two unequal
parts, and bridges are necessary to keep up a communication between them.
Although the source of this arm be never dried up, yet much of its water
is lost in the passage; and during five or six months of the year that
nothing is received from the small branches, greater or less portions of
its bed are left dry; there seems, however, to be springs in the bed, for
at a distance from where the water disappears a stream is found running
lower down, which is also lost and another appears further on. In the
summer rains, more especially in the hurricanes, the R. du Rempart
receives numberless re-enforcements, and its torrent then becomes
impetuous, carrying away the bridges, loose rocks, and every moveable
obstruction; its partial inundations do great damage to the coffee trees,
which cannot bear the water, and in washing off the best of the vegetable
soil. During these times, the communication between those parts of the
plantations on different sides of the river is cut off, until the waters
have in part subsided; and this occurred thrice in one year and a half.

At the western end of the Mare aux Vacouas is an outlet through which a
constant stream flows, and this is the commencement of the principal
branch of the R. du Tamarin; the other branch, called the R. des
Aigrettes, is said to take its rise near a more distant lake, named the
Grand Bassin; and their junction is made about one mile to the S. S. W.
of the Refuge, near the boundary ridge of the high land, through which
they have made a deep cut, and formed a valley of a very romantic