. Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage round the world of 'Beagle,' under the command of Captain Fitz Roy. d, higher up, withcoarse grass ; it was not very dissimilar from that on some ofthe Welsh hills, and this so close above the orchard of tropicalplants on the coast was very surprising. At the highest pointwhich I reached trees again appeared. Of the three zonesof comparative luxuriance, the lower one owes its moisture,and therefore fertility, to its flatness ; for, being scarcely raisedabove the level of the sea, the
. Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage round the world of 'Beagle,' under the command of Captain Fitz Roy. d, higher up, withcoarse grass ; it was not very dissimilar from that on some ofthe Welsh hills, and this so close above the orchard of tropicalplants on the coast was very surprising. At the highest pointwhich I reached trees again appeared. Of the three zonesof comparative luxuriance, the lower one owes its moisture,and therefore fertility, to its flatness ; for, being scarcely raisedabove the level of the sea, the water from the higher landdrains away slowly. The intermediate zone does not, like theupper one, reach into a damp and cloudy atmosphere, andtherefore remains sterile. The woods in the upper zone arevery pretty, tree-ferns replacing the cocoa-nuts on the must not, however, be supposed that these woods at allequal in splendour the forests of Brazil. The vast number ofproductions, which characterise a continent, cannot be expectedto occur in an island. From the highest point which I attained there was a goodview of the distant island of Eimeo, dependent on the same. xvin EXCURSION IN THE MOUNTAINS 433 sovereign with Tahiti. On the lofty and broken pinnacleswhite massive clouds were piled up, which formed an island inthe blue sky, as Eimeo itself did in the blue ocean. Theisland, with the exception of one small gateway, is completelyencircled by a reef. At this distance, a narrow but well-defined brilliantly white line was alone visible, where the wavesfirst encountered the wall of coral. The mountains roseabruptly out of the glassy expanse of the lagoon, includedwithin this narrow white line, outside which the heavingwaters of the ocean were dark-coloured. The view was strik-ing : it may aptly be compared to a framed engraving, wherethe frame represents the breakers, the marginal paper thesmooth lagoon, and the drawing the island itself. When inthe evening I descended fr
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