dant masses undulated before the eyes, and
extended as far as the mountains in the background. There, if Cousin
Benedict had been a botanist, how many trees, new to him, would not
have failed to provoke his admiration.

There were high baobabs--to which, however, an extraordinary longevity
has been falsely attributed--the bark of which resembles Egyptian
syenite, Bourbon palms, white pines, tamarind-trees, pepper-plants of a
peculiar species, and a hundred other plants that an American is not
accustomed to see in the northern region of the New Continent.

But, a circumstance rather curious, among those forest productions one
would not meet a single specimen of that numerous family of palm-trees
which counts more than a thousand species, spread in profusion over
almost the whole surface of the globe.

Above the sea-shore a great number of very noisy birds were flying,
which belonged for the greater part to different varieties of swallows,
of black plumage, with a steel-blue shade, but of a light chestnut
color on the upper part of the head. Here and there also rose some
partridges, with necks entirely white, and of a gray color.

Mrs. Weldon and Dick Sand observed that these different birds did not
appear to be at all wild. They approached without fearing anything.
Then, had they not yet learned to fear the presence of man, and was
this coast so deserted that the detonation of a firearm had never been
heard there?

At the edge of the rocks were walking some pelicans of the species of
"pelican minor," occupied in filling with little fish the sack which
they carry between the branches of their lower jaw. Some gulls, coming
from the offing, commenced to fly about around the "Pilgrim."

Those birds were the only living creatures that seemed to frequent this
part of the coast, without counting, indeed, numbers of interesting
insects that Cousin Benedict would well know how to discover. But,
however little Jack would have it, one could not ask them the name of
the country; in order to learn it, it would be necessary to address
some native. There were none there, or at least, there was not one to
be seen. No habitation, hut, or cabin, neither in the north, beyond the
little river, nor in the south, nor finally on the upper part of the
cliff, in the midst of the trees of the thick forest. No smoke ascended
into the air, no indication, mark, or imprint indicated that this
portion of the continent was visited by human beings