The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-09-05
BY HoRsLEY BROS. & FIGUERs
,avy stone flung upon a hard rock.

heavy stone flung upon hard rock. 1t
is not pleasant to contemplate the re-
suit of putting ones foot by accident
into the tOothed apertures which lie
hidden so harmlessly among the corals.
Animal life, except birds and insects,
is very rare in these islands. A few
goats, which the natives call nanis, like
our own nanny goats, roam wild about
the hills, descendants of the flock of
the massacred Capt. Berard; but the
cattle which belonged to the unfortu-
nate speculator who founded a sugar
factory on the island in 1859, and was
murdered with all his colonists, were
summarily destroyed. Isle Ouen is
very interesting from geological point
of view, and is rich in jade-stone of the
finest quality, and in the ouwarivite
variety of garnets, which are of beau
tiful green, translucent and brilliant,
and, though generally small, equal in
color and hmpidity to the finest green
emeralds.
Kounea, on the Island of Pines,
which was regarded as an important
portion of the archipelago in past days,
chiefly because Cook having explored
it, other navigators visited it, but which
has latterly fallen out of notice, because
the anchorage is bad, and the soil much
inferior to that of the mainland, has
several features of interest. Like Ouen
island, it once formed a part of the
southern portion of the great island of
New Caledonia, and, also like Ouen
island, it consists of PERCEPTIONS coast,
a narrow strip of lowland, capable of
culture, and wide sterile iron plains.
T,,R
upon it, is derived from an unexception-
able feature, large quantity of pines,
which grow here and there, and give it
strange aspect, especially when OBJ
served from the sea, the vertical points
terminating a kind of vertical crown,
and the plain in which they are rooted,
hidden. Cooks companions took them
for basaltic columns The Island of
Pines, though only thirty miles south
east of New Caledonia, differs from that
island in climate, in fauna and in fora.
Thestemperature is lower and more
even the air is very pure and dry +; the
rainsAre tolerably frequent but they do
not last long; storms are almost I'M
known. There are no marshes, no mos
quitOes, pests which render all the
beauty and abundance of the places
they infest of no account; in short,
there is not in the world more health
full and pleasant climate. Many streams
traverse the island, bordered by shady
woods, peopled with wood-pigeons, tur-
tle-doves, paroquets, thrushes and other
birds. The natives, having to fear
neither cold nor flies, live in the sim
plest and slightest of houses. Never
theless, they are far advanced in civili-
zation, under the influence of the mis-
sion, which occupies all the productive
parts of the island, so that there are
very few colonists. Their chief indus
try is the cultivation of vegetables of
several European species, for instance,
the cabbage, which grows all the year
round. In this respect the Island of
Pines is the providence of Noumea,
where, in the dry seasons, the gardens
are bare, and vegetables attain an enor-
nous price, until the pirogues from the
Pines come in with their precious
freight. At Gadii, one of the principal
villages to the north of the island, an
aged native told NJ GARNER a story
which enabled him to confirm the belief
prevalent in France that the unfortu-
nate La Perouse had visited this coast.