perceived no apparent difficulty before us: but we soon found our mistake, and the representations of the natives verified; for as we endeavoured to advance, we found the side of the mountain here and there covered with low scrubby wood and ferns, so very dense in many places, that we were obliged to make a path step by step for the whole party, which rendered our progress slow and fatiguing; and, in some places, the ground was covered over with a fragile crust of lava, which broke under our feet, and we now and then stumbled into chinks and crevices, which were really very dangerous; whilst, in other places, it sounded so hollow underneath us, that we were every moment apprehensive of its breaking in, and swallowing us up, in some hideous fissure or cavern. We, however, persevered under these discouraging circumstances till about three in the afternoon, when perceiving that we had scarcely diminished our apparent distance from the snow, and being quite harassed and exhausted with fatigue, without any prospect of soon overcoming our difficulties, it was agreed upon to relinquish our pursuit, to the no small satisfaction of the natives; and, after taking some refreshment, we returned again to the cavern, where we arrived in the dusk of the evening. The night was very stormy, with high winds and cold showers of sleet; and, next morning, we observed that Mowna-roa was covered much lower down with fresh snow, so that, had we succeeded in our attempt to ascend it, we should probably have suffered severely from the inclemency of the weather, exposed to these rigorous blasts, without any shelter, on the bleak side of this huge mountain.

The centre of the island near which we were now stationed, between the three great mountains, together with the extensive valleys which separate them, forms a flat dreary tract of inland country of considerable extent, and nearly the same elevation, and which is apparently incapable of any kind of cultivation; the trees and brushwood, with which it is here and there thinly covered, indicate the poverty of the soil by their stinted and scrubby appearance; but as the volcanic dregs with which it has been strewed from the adjacent mountains, are continually mouldering away by the busy and constant operations of time, this tract may be said to be in a state of slow and progressive improvement, and future ages will probably find it clothed with a rich carpet of verdure.

To give some idea of the elevation and temperature of this inland region, I observed the barometer on the morning of the 23d at the mouth of our cavern, where the mercury stood at 25 in. 18 pts., and the thermometer was at the same time at 57°. I had also observed both, at the same place, on the

evening of our first arrival, when the former stood at 25 in. 15 pts., and the latter at 56°; so if we take the mean of these two observations with the barometer, the result will give our height at this station 5085 feet above the level of the sea.

After making a scanty breakfast out of the last portion of our provisions, we turned our faces homeward by a path which forms a communication, by this valley, from the eastern extremity of the island; and the great cavern which we had just quitted, may be considered as one of the inns upon this road, for the shelter and accommodation of travellers. The only inhabitants we saw in this desert valley were some wild geese, of a size somewhat between our common goose and duck, they were very handsome, and had some distant resemblance, in colour, to the Canadian goose, but a distinct species; we also saw some crows, which, together with the preceding, we believe, are peculiar to those islands, and commonly inhabit the upper regions.

After travelling about three or four miles, we entered the woods at the mouth of the valley, and began our descent in a winding direction: but as the girdle of forest is not here so broad as on the sides of the mountains, and the paths being tolerably clear, we soon got through it, as the cravings of both hunger and thirst made us now anxious to get down to the plantations; for the region above the forest is but scantily supplied with water, and many of the springs, where the natives expected to find a supply, were at this time dried up, which often occasioned disappointment. About the middle of the wood, however, we met with our trusty and faithful adherents, who had been sent down the day before to the plantations, and were now making all the haste they could to our relief, with heavy loads of provisions. This supply came very seasonably, and we instantly sat down to lighten their burdens by partaking of a hearty refreshment; after which we continued our descent, though now with less hurry; and, when we came out of the wood, we found the lower skirts of it, as in other places, adorned with rich plantations of plantains and bananas. Thence we pursued our course in a slanting direction to the southward, till we came to a village amongst the upper plantations, where we took up our residence for the night, about nine or ten miles to the north-east of Karakakooa bay, and where we were surrounded by most exuberant fields of the esculent vegetables of these islands, which, for industry of cultivation and agricultural arrangements, could scarcely be exceeded in any country, and it was pleasant to observe such labour here rewarded by productive crops.

We found we had taken up our quarters in a plantation belonging to our friend Teamotoo; and as that chief had kindly requested, we now made the man he sent with us our purveyor, who readily supplied us with every thing we wanted.

At eight next morning the thermometer was 56°, and the barometer stood at 28 in., which will give our height at this station 1892 feet above the level of the sea. After breakfast, we were entertained with the performance of a young girl who danced in a small area before our door. She was assisted by her father, who beat time on a small drum, and joined her now and then in singing, in reciting, and sometimes in a brisk dialogue; whilst she (encumbered as she was with a grotesque dress) traversed the area with such measured paces and fascinating movements, with such graceful attitudes, such agility and animation of acting, so punctually timed, and so varied by slow and quick transitions, as would have done credit to the most expert attitudinarian, and far exceeded any thing of the kind we had before seen at these islands.

We were given to understand that this actress and her father belonged to a party who strolled about the country from village to village, and gained their livelihood by entertaining the inhabitants with their performances; and if we might judge of her merit from the specimen we had just seen of her acting, we think her possessed of natural powers to entertain, even in a more refined society.

After presenting this young girl with suitable presents of beads, looking-glasses, scissors, tape, and other articles, we descended through the plantations, collecting whatever flowers and seeds their interesting banks produced, that we had not before met with in our journey. Our adherents who had been distinguished on the top of Wha-ra-rai, now wore their little badges round their arms, and were the envied objects of every group of the natives we passed. In the evening, we arrived at a small village on the sea-side, a few miles to the northward of Karakakooa, where we stopped for the night, and where I observed the barometer at sun-set close to high-water mark, when the mercury stood at 30 in. 12 pts., and the thermometer was at 74°. This height of the mercury in the barometer' coincides so nearly with what it was when we began our ascent, that the observations made with it may be considered as sufficiently accurate to give a general idea of our height at the different stations, especially as no material changes of weather happened during our excursion that were likely to affect it.

Next morning, we travelled over a dreary tract of rugged lava and very uneven ground along shore, till we came to the VOL. II. No. 10.

G G

village of Kow-rowa, where we hired canoes for the whole party, and arrived on board the Discovery about noon, when all our attendants were rewarded for their services. The king was so pleased with the very favourable report which we were able to make of their conduct, that he himself fixed upon the quantity of articles to be given to them, as the price of their labour and good behaviour, and with his own hand laid out a small piece of iron, fashioned like a chisel, a parcel of small nails, a bunch of beads, two knives, a file, a pair of scissors, a looking-glass, and a few yards of tape, which were handed to each of them; but I observed that all of them gave up the last article to the king, and were so well satisfied with what they got, that they all expressed a wish of setting out with us again the next day. The chief, Harou, was presented with the same articles, but in greater proportions, together with the addition of an axe, and as much red cloth as would make him a cloak; the last, however, we understood he was not suffered long to keep, but was obliged to deliver it up to the king.

ART. IV.

Contributions towards the Natural History of the Dodo (Didus inéptus Lin.). (fig. 107.) a Bird which appears to have become extinct towards the End of the Seventeenth or Beginning of the Eighteenth Century. By JOHN V. THOMPSON, Esq.

F.L.S.

SOME philosophers are not disposed to admit of the destruction of any of the species of animals of contemporaneous creation with man. If the remains of animals found embedded and lapidified in the solid substance of rocks, in every explored region of the globe, differ in toto from the existing races, those, however, which have become extinct during the latest revolutions of our planet, resemble so closely what are now spread over its surface, as to be considered in the relation of species and varieties. Hence we cannot but admit that the successive destruction and utter annihilation of certain animals form a part of the scheme of creative wisdom. What the conditions may have been, under which any particular species of these lost animals perished, must be matter of mere conjecture, but, with regard to the subject of the present paper (the dodo), those conditions are self-evident. Imagine a bird of the gallinaceous (gallus, cock, or pheasant) tribe, considerably larger than a turkey, and consequently adapted for food, totally incapable of flying, and so unwieldy as to be easily run down, and it must be quite obvious that such a bird could not

long continue to exist in any country to which mankind extended their dominion. This will account for its being found only in those islands of the Indian Ocean which, on their first discovery by Europeans, were uninhabited, or difficult of access to the nearest people. The group which is situated to the eastward of Madagascar, consisting of Bourbon, Mauritius, and Rodrigue, were almost the only islands of this description met with by the early circumnavigators of the Cape; and it is there that we find the last traces of this very remarkable bird, which disappeared, of course, from Bourbon and the Mauritius first, on account of their being more visited and finally colonised by the French; and lastly from Rodrigue, an island extremely difficult of access, and without any bay or safe anchor

age for shipping. Having resided some years amongst those islands, inclusive of Madagascar, and being curious to find whether any testimony could be obtained on the spot, as to the existence of the dodo in any of the islands of this or the neighbouring archipelagoes, I may venture to say, that no traces of any kind could be found, no more than of the truth of the beautiful tale of Paul and Virginia, although a very general belief prevailed as to both the one and the other. I there discovered, however, a copy of the scarce and curious voyage of Leguat, who, and his companions, appear to have been the first residents of Rodrigue; and, although some allowances appear to be necessary on account of the period in which he wrote, for descriptions and drawings apparently from memory,