e in the country, and the soil, although red,
was extremely rich and free from sand. A short time afterwards we rose
to the summit of a round hill, from which we obtained an extensive view
on most points of the compass. We had imperceptibly risen considerably
above the general level of the interior.

VIEW FROM THE SUMMIT.

Beneath us, to the westward, I observed a broad and thinly wooded
valley; and W. by S., distant apparently about twenty miles, an
isolated mountain, whose sides seemed almost perpendicular, broke the
otherwise even line of the horizon; but the country in every other
direction looked as if it was darkly wooded. Anticipating that I should
find a stream in the valley, I did not for a moment hesitate in
striking down into it. Disappointed, however, in this expectation, I
continued onwards to the mountain, which I reached just before the sun
set. Indeed, he was barely visible when I gained its summit; but my
eyes, from exposure to his glare, became so weak, my face was so
blistered, and my lips cracked in so many places, that I was unable to
look towards the west, and was actually obliged to sit down behind a
rock until he had set.

Perhaps no time is so favourable for a view along the horizon as the
sunset hour; and here, at an elevation of from five to six hundred feet
above the plain, the visible line of it could not have been less than
from thirty-five to forty-five miles. The hill upon which I stood was
broken into two points; the one was a bold rocky elevation; the other
had its rear face also perpendicular, but gradually declined to the
north, and at a distance of from four to five miles was lost in an
extensive and open plain in that direction. In the S.E. quarter, two
wooded hills were visible, which before had appeared to be nothing more
than swells in the general level of the country. A small hill, similar
to the above, bore N.E. by compass; and again, to the west, a more
considerable mountain than that I had ascended, and evidently much
higher, reflected the last beams of the sun as he sunk behind them. I
looked, however, in vain for water. I could not trace either the
windings of a stream, or the course of a mountain torrent; and, as we
had passed a swamp about a mile from the hill, we descended to it for
the night, during which we were grievously tormented by the mosquitoes.

RESULTS OF THE EXCURSION.

I had no inducement to proceed further into the interior. I had been
sufficiently dis