ains near the
sea-shore, is found in immense blocks and principally in that mountain
range which is designated in the map as the "Montagne du Monstre," at
the foot of which were dug up the remains of the huge Saurian Lizard.

The greater portion of the country is, of course, prairie; these
prairies are covered with blue grass, muskeet grass, clovers, sweet
prairie hay, and the other grasses common to the east of the continent
of America. Here and there are scattered patches of plums of the
green-gage kind, berries, and a peculiar kind of shrub oaks, never more
than five feet high, yet bearing a very large and sweet acorn; ranges of
hazel nuts will often extend thirty or forty miles, and are the abode of
millions of birds of the richest and deepest dyes.

Along the streams which glide through the prairies, there is a luxuriant
growth of noble timber, such as maple, magnolia, blue and green ash, red
oak, and cedar, around which climb vines loaded with grapes. Near the
sea-shores, the pine, both black and white, becomes exceedingly common,
while the smaller plains and hills are covered with that peculiar
species of the prickly pear upon which the cochineal insect feeds. All
round the extinguished volcano, and principally in the neighbourhood of
the hill Nanawa Ashtajueri e, the locality of our settlement upon the
banks of the Buonaventura, the bushes are covered with a very superior
quality of the vanilla bean.

The rivers and streams, as well as the lakes of the interior, abound
with fish; in the latter, the perch, trout, and carp are very common; in
the former, the salmon and white-cat fish, the soft-shelled tortoise,
the pearl oyster, the sea-perch (Lupus Maritimes), the ecrevisse, and
hundred families of the "crevette species," offer to the Indian a great
variety of delicate food for the winter. In the bays along the shore,
the mackerel and bonita, the turtle, and, unfortunately, the sharks, are
very numerous; while on the shelly beach, or the fissures of the rocks,
are to be found lobsters, and crabs of various sorts.

The whole country offers a vast field to the naturalist; the most common
birds of prey are the bald, the white-headed eagle, the black and the
grey, the falcon, the common hawk, the epervier, the black and
red-headed vulture, the raven and the crow. Among the granivorous, the
turkey, the wapo (a small kind of prairie ostrich), the golden and
common pheasant, the wild peacock, of a dull whitish c