It was here deliberated, whether they should proceed any further, or rest satisfied with the view they now had of Mouna Rao. The road, ever since the path ceased, had become exceedingly fatiguing; and every step they advanced was growing still more so. The deep chinks, with which the ground was every where broken, being slightly covered with moss, made them stumble at almost every step; and the intermediate space was a surface of loose burnt stones, which broke under their feet like potsherds. They threw stones into several of these chinks, which, by the noise they made, seemed to fall to a considerable depth, and the ground sounded hollow under their feet. Besides these discouraging circumstances, they found their guides so averse to going on, that they believed, whatever their own determinations might have been, they could not have prevailed on them to remain out another night. They therefore at last agreed to return to the ships, after taking a view of the country, from the highest trees which the place afforded. From this elevation they saw themselves surrounded, on all sides, with wood toward the sea; they could not distinguish, in the horizon, the sky from the water; and between them and the snowy mountain, was a valley about seven or eight miles broad, above which the mountain appeared only as a hill of a moderate size. They rested this night at a hut in the second wood, and, on the 30th, before noon, they had got clear of the first, and found themselves about nine miles to the north-east of the ships, toward which they directed their march through the plantations. As they passed along, they did not observe a single spot of ground that was capable of improvement left unplanted; and indeed it appeared, from their account, hardly possible for the country to be cultivated to greater advantage for the purposes of the inhabitants, or made to yield them a larger supply of necessaries for their subsistence. They were surprised to meet with several fields of hay; and, on enquiring to what uses it was applied, were told, it was designed to cover the young tarrow grounds, in, order to preserve them from being scorched by the sun. They saw a few scattered huts amongst the plantations, which served for occasional shelter to the labourers; but no villages at a greater distance than four or five miles from the sea. Near one of them, about four miles from the bay, they found a cave, forty fathoms long, three broad, and of the same height. It was open at both ends; the sides were fluted, as if wrought with a chisel, and the surface glazed over, probably by the action of fire. Having given this account of the most material circumstances that occurred on the expedition to the snowy mountain, I shall now return to the other islands that remain to be described.