Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/272

222 We proceeded for some time along the tops of the mountains towards the south-west, then we descended into a hollow, where we found two men and a child, who showed no concern with respect to us, and did not quit the rock upon which they were seated. When we were close by them, they shewed us a basket (see Plate XXXVIII. Fig. 24), filled with roots, resembling those of a kind of sun-flower called helianthus tuberosus. They called them paoua, saying that they were good to eat, and they wanted to sell us a small quantity.

Perceiving, at about thirty yards distance, a thick smoke issuing from the midst of large broken rocks, which offered a good shelter from the wind, we directed our course towards it, and found a young savage busy roasting some roots, amongst which we distinguished those of the dolichos tuberosus. He did not appear surprized at our visit, and smiled at us from the bottom of his cavern, which was filled with a very black smoke, whereby he however did not appear to be at all incommoded.

Near this place the side of the mountain, laid open by the torrents which descend in the rainy season, discovered to us clusters of beautiful pieces of green schorl in a soft steatite, and below