I there met with many varieties, some of which were exceedingly beautiful.

My appearance in those forests caused them much surprise, and to gratify their curiosity they sometimes flew towards me, and hovered within a few feet of my face, as if eager to examine my appearance and learn what object led me to intrude on their mountain haunts.
There were, however, other and less interesting inhabitants in that region, as I one day discovered to my great consternation.

I was passing up the bed of a small stream, where the water, by attrition during many ages, had worn a chasm or "flume" through the solid basaltic rock, the walls of which rose at least a hundred feet nearly perpendicularly, when I found an obstacle to my further progress in the shape of some large rocks, which had fallen from above and blocked the passage.

I was unable to scale the CHEVAUX-DE-FRISE; but the whole body of water poured through an aperture three or four feet above the bed of the stream; and although it looked dark and dreary within, instead of retracing my steps to find another route through the woods to the spot I wished to reach, I determined to force my way into the gloomy cavern, with the expectation of being able to emerge on the opposite side.
I listened for a moment at the mouth of the aperture, but heard only the murmuring of the stream as it swept along through the uneven channel.

I then thrust in my head, when I heard a rushing noise as of the flapping of a thousand wings, and the next moment I was sprawling on my back in the water, having been summarily capsized, partly by force and partly by an involuntary start of terror! I raised my head and beheld a legion of BATS, some of them of uncommon size, issuing in a stream from the mouth of the cave.