One chief, not long
since, offered 800 dollars (about 160 pounds sterling) for a small
vessel; and frequently they purchase whale-boats and horses at the
rate of from 50 to 100 dollars.
After breakfast I went on shore, and ascended the nearest slope to
a height of between two and three thousand feet. The outer
mountains are smooth and conical, but steep; and the old volcanic
rocks, of which they are formed, have been cut through by many
profound ravines, diverging from the central broken parts of the
island to the coast. Having crossed the narrow low girt of
inhabited and fertile land, I followed a smooth steep ridge between
two of the deep ravines. The vegetation was singular, consisting
almost exclusively of small dwarf ferns, mingled, higher up, with
coarse grass; it was not very dissimilar from that on some of the
Welsh hills, and this so close above the orchard of tropical plants
on the coast was very surprising. At the highest point which I
reached trees again appeared. Of the three zones of comparative
luxuriance, the lower one owes its moisture, and therefore
fertility, to its flatness; for, being scarcely raised above the
level of the sea, the water from the higher land drains away
slowly.
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