BOURBON, Ism; or. In the Enoqclopotdia will be found a pretty full account of the discovery and settlement of this Island. There has since appeared the work of M. Bory de St Vincent, which, though indeed A Voyage to the four principal Isles of Africa, is, in fact, almost entirely occupied by a very detailed account of Bourbon. In 1811, also, an officer attached to the British expedition against that Island, published an. Account of its Conquest, with an Appendix on its Present State. From these materials we are enabled to make some important additions to the information formerly communicated.
The physical structure of this Isle being the point on which most new light has been thrown, seems to merit our first attention. Bourbon does not, like the Isle of France, consist of a level plain, from which conical hills arise in detached masses. The whole Island is as it were one mountain, having its most elevated points in the centre, and thence slop ing gradually down to the sea. This great mountain however, is split into two portions, of which the tattiest, situate in the northern part, is called the Gros Morse, and its summit, the Piton des Neigrs (Snowy Peak). There is hi re no present sedan of volcanic fire ; but the frequent occurrence of deep valleys or basins, rapid rivers bordered by perpendi cular walls of rock, hillocks precipitated into these valleys and torrents, basaltic prisms often disposed in e colonnades, strata thrown Min the in= /We gular peshietw,—.11 these, 111 M. Bory de St Vincent's opinion, indicate terrible physical revolutions in for mer times. The northers mountain is entirely volcanic, and the phenomena present themselves in an extraordinary state of frequency and activity. This writer not only conceives both these mountains to be originally volcanic, but the whole Island to have been thrown up by the action of subterraneous fire. The two mountains appear to him also to have for merly composed only one, having an intermediate summit higher than that of either now is. The vol canic agitations, however, having hollowed the in ternal part of this great mass, the exterior crust fell in, and reduced the Island to the shattered state which it now exhibits. To a great extent, indeed, it is divided into two portions by an immense hol low, bordered with perpendicular walls of rock, which, after running parallel for seven or eight miles, form an arch and unite. At the foot of the volcano is found an immense tract of what the in habitants call Bruli " burnt country ;''' supposed to have been formed by the lava spreading into a spe cies of fiery lake, sad then consolidating into the present surflice. It is destitute of all vegetation whatever ; its colour is of the gloomiest black, the surface broken by holes, crevices, and innumerable asperities of every description. These, joined to
its hard and brittle consistence, render it impos sible to be trod without the severest injury to the feet. Those of our traveller's attendant negro** were almost torn to pieces ; and his own, though de fended by strong shoes, were wounded in &event' places.
The streams of Bourbon are mere mountain tor rents, which descend from steep to steep, and throw themselves into the sea. In their descent, they dig for themselves deep ravines, bordered by lofty, al most perpendicular walls. The largest river, how ever, that of St Denis, has not a longer course than seven or eight miles. These deep and foaming tor rents, the rude surface of the ground, and the per pendicular rents by which it is everywhere broken, render travelling through Bourbon a most arduous undertaking. M. Bory de St Vincent was assured, that his plan of reaching the two principal peaks was altogether impracticable ; but his enterprise, and love of science, enabled him to surmount all the in tervening difficulties.
In the ascent to the summit of the volcanic moun tain, the obstacles encountered were truly formi dable. Sometimes the sides of nearly perpendicular . rocks were to be climbed ; at other times, a road was to be made by cutting down the bushes and filling up the crevices ; while s'mist, which riots every day from the sea, rendered it impossible to. distinguish his companions at the smallest distance. At length they reached the summit of the Mantelon central. The crater here, to which the name df Dolomieu was given, ceramists df a cavity forty fathoms in diameter, and about eighty feet deep, the bottom filled with • confused piles of.greyish coloured lava. The'sides *bowed none of that soft hwa which forms a species of varnish over the interior of other Craters ; they .consisted .of mime car fragments of hard :tmd cam pact substances. Our author here -notices the error of those who expect, when they reach-the summit of a crater, to look down into an unfathomable abyss. 'The fact is, from whatever depth the liquified sub stances may have ascended, that, when the confia -gration ceases, they harden and fill up the opening, -so that only a very small void remains. Being led, •however, by a sulphureous smell, to the left side of the present crater, they tliscovered a deep hollow 'like a tunnel, the ;valls of which were composed of turning lava ; while, beneath, two columns of fiery matter, rising 'to the height of 120 feet, threw up a bloody light, -which shone brightly, even amid the blaze of a tropical noon. This spectacle, accom panied with a sound similar to that of an enormous cascade, filled their minds with terror and admiration.