Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/33

] We slept in the open air, for we should have found it difficult, to construct a shelter in a short time among the large trees, as their branches were mostly near the summit, and this part of the forest was destitute of shrubs. We looked in vain for some large trunks hollowed by fire; these are to be found only in places frequented by the natives. We had seen a great number on the borders of the sea, where we had observed many paths, which the natives had cleared; but nothing gave us any intimation that they had ever come into the midst of these thick forests.

The air was extremely calm; and about midnight I awaked, when, solitary in the midst of these silent woods, the majesty of which was half disclosed to me by the feeble gleam of the stars, I felt myself penetrated with a sentiment of admiration of the grandeur of nature, which it is beyond my power to express.

3d. At day-break we resumed our journey in the same direction as before. Our difficulties increased more and more. The trunks of trees lying one upon another often presented an almost impenetrable barrier, obliging us to climb to the uppermost, and then to walk from tree to tree, at the hazard of a fall from a considerable height; for several were covered with a spongy bark, so wet with the damp continually prevailing in these thick