VANITY FAIR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 244, 15 October 1932, Page 2

VANITY FAIR

IN A VALLEY OF THE MARQUESAS. I chanced io push aside a branch, and b\j so do ing suddenly) disclosed to nip view a scene which even now I can recall with all the vividness of the first impression. . . . From the spot where I lay transfixed with surprise and delight, 1 looked straight down into the bosom of a valley, which swept away in long wavy undulations to the blue waters in the distance. Midway towards the sea, and peering here and there amidst the foliage, might be seen the palmetto-thatched houses of its inhabitants, glistening in the sun that had bleached them to a dazzling whitenffL 7 he vale Was more than three leagues in length, and about a mile across at its greatest width. On either side it appeared hemmed in by sleep and green acclivities, which, uniting near the spot where / lay, formed an ebrupt and semi-circular termination of grassy cliffs and precipices hundreds of feel in height, over which flowed numberless small cascades. But the crowning beauty of the prospect Was its universal verdure; and in this indeed consists, I believe, the peculiar charm of every Polynesian landscape. Everywhere below me, from the base of the precipice upon whose very verge I had been unconsciously reposing, the surface of the vale presented a mass of foliage, spread with such rich profusion that it Was impossible to determine of what description of trees it consisted. But perhaps there Was nothing about the scenery I beheld more impressive than those silent cascades, whose slender threads of waler, after leaping down the steep cliffs, were lost amidst the rich herbage of the valley. Over all the landscape there reigned the most hushed repose, which I almost feared io break, lest, like the enchanted gardens in the fairy tale, a single syllable might dissolve the spell. For a long time, forgetful alike of my own situation, and the vicinity of my still slumbering companion, 1 remained gazing around me, hardly able to comprehend by what means I had thus suddenly been made a spectator of such a scene. —From “Typee," by Herman Melville.