DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0297
FRENCH ISLAND OF BOURBON. 26'S
another, that one may be easily out in reckoning them.—
They call them the spikes. If one has a mind to stop and
rest himself near one of them, those who go on to some
other place must not advance above two hundred paces.
If they do, they run the risk of never finding the place
they left. The spikes, as they call them, .are so nume-
rous, all so like one another, and disposed so much after
the same manner, that the Creoles, who are the natives of
the country, are themselves deceived. To remedy this
inconvenience, when a company of travellers stop at the
foot of one of these spikes, and some of them have a mind
to separate themselves, they leave somebody there, who
makes a fire or smoke which serves to direct the other the
way back again ; and if the fog proves so thick as to hin-
der the sight of the fire or the smoke, they provide certain
large shells, one of which they leave with the person who
stays at the spike, carrying the other along with them ;
and, when they have a mind to return, they blow into this
shell with all their force, as if it were a trumpet, which
makes a very shrill sound, and is heard a great way off-
In this manner answering one another, they avoid losing
themselves, and easily meet again.
There are abundance ofaspen trees in this plain, which
are continually green ; the other trees are troubled with a
moss above a fathom long, which covers their trunk and
branches. They have no boughs with leaves on, but ap-
pear withered ; and are so moistened with water that there
is no making a fire with them. If, after much trouble,
you get some of the branches kindled, you have only a fire
without flame, with a reddish smoke, which smokes the vic-
tuals instead of dressing them. It would be difficult to
find a place in that plain to make a fire in, except you
pitch upon some rising ground about those spires, for the
toil is so moist that the water springs out of it every where,
m m 2 . and
another, that one may be easily out in reckoning them.—
They call them the spikes. If one has a mind to stop and
rest himself near one of them, those who go on to some
other place must not advance above two hundred paces.
If they do, they run the risk of never finding the place
they left. The spikes, as they call them, .are so nume-
rous, all so like one another, and disposed so much after
the same manner, that the Creoles, who are the natives of
the country, are themselves deceived. To remedy this
inconvenience, when a company of travellers stop at the
foot of one of these spikes, and some of them have a mind
to separate themselves, they leave somebody there, who
makes a fire or smoke which serves to direct the other the
way back again ; and if the fog proves so thick as to hin-
der the sight of the fire or the smoke, they provide certain
large shells, one of which they leave with the person who
stays at the spike, carrying the other along with them ;
and, when they have a mind to return, they blow into this
shell with all their force, as if it were a trumpet, which
makes a very shrill sound, and is heard a great way off-
In this manner answering one another, they avoid losing
themselves, and easily meet again.
There are abundance ofaspen trees in this plain, which
are continually green ; the other trees are troubled with a
moss above a fathom long, which covers their trunk and
branches. They have no boughs with leaves on, but ap-
pear withered ; and are so moistened with water that there
is no making a fire with them. If, after much trouble,
you get some of the branches kindled, you have only a fire
without flame, with a reddish smoke, which smokes the vic-
tuals instead of dressing them. It would be difficult to
find a place in that plain to make a fire in, except you
pitch upon some rising ground about those spires, for the
toil is so moist that the water springs out of it every where,
m m 2 . and