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Show 580 ST. HELENA. July, 18:-36. and the sloping banks are thickly scattered over with thickets of gorze, covered with its bright yellow flowers. Weepingwillows are common along the course of the rivulets, and the hedges are made of the blackberry, producing its wellknown fruit. When we consider that the number of plants now found on the island is 7 46, and that out of these, fiftytwo alone are native species, the rest being imported, and many of them from England, we see a good reason for this English character in the vegetation. The numerous species which have been so recently introduced can hardly h~ve failed to have destroyed some of the native kinds. I believe there is no accurate account of the state of the vegetation at the period when the island was covered with trees ; such would have formed a most curious comparison with its present sterile condition, and limited Flora. Many English plants appear to flourish here better than in their native country ; some also from the opposite quarter of Australia succeed remarkably well. It is only on the highest and steepest ridges, where the native Flora is still predominant. . The English, or rather the Welsh character of the scenery, IS preserved by the numerous cottages and small v;rhite houses ; some buried at the bottom of the deepest valleys, and others stuck up on the crests of the lofty hills. Some of the views are very striking ; I may instance that from near Sir W. Doveton's house, where the bold peak called Lott is seen over a dark wood of firs, the whole being backed by the red water-worn mountains of the Southern shore. On viewing the island from an eminence the first circumstance which strikes one, is the very great 'number of roads, and for~s : the labour bestowed on the public works, if one ~orgets Its character as a prison, seem out of all proportion to Its extent or value. 'rhere is so little level or useful land that it se~ms surprising how so many people (about sooo) can subsist he~e. The lower orders, or the emancipated slaves, are I beheve extremely poor : they complain of want of work, a fact which is likewise shown hy the very cheap uly, 1836. S'l'. HELENA. 581 labour. From the reduction in the number of public servants owing to the island having been given up by the East India Company, and the consequent emigration of many of the richer people, the poverty probably will increase. The chief food of the working class is rice with a little salt meat ; as neither of these articles are the products of the island, but must be purchased with money, the low wages tell heavily on the poor people. The fine times, as my old guide called them, when " Bony" was here, can never return again. Now that the people are blessed with freedom, a right which I believe they value fully, it seems probable that their numbers will quickly increase: if so, what is to become of the little state of St. Helena? My guide was an elderly man, who had been a goatherd when a boy, and knew every step amongst the rocks. He was of a race many times mixed, and although with a dusky skin, he had not the disagreeable expression of a mulatto. He was a very civil, quiet old man, and such appears the character of the greater number among the lower classes. It was strange to my ears to hear a man, nearly white, and respectably dressed, talking with indifference of the times when he was a slave. With my companion who carried our dinner and a horn of water, which latter is quite necessary as all in the lower valleys is saline, I every day took long walks. Beneath the limits of the elevated and central green circle, the wild valleys are quite desolate and untenanted. Here, to the geologist, there are scenes of high interest, which show the successive changes, and complicated disturbances which have in past times happened. According to my views, St. Helena has existed as an island from a very remote epoch : some obscure proofs, however, of the elevation of the land are still extant. I believe that the central and highest peaks form parts of the rim of a great crater; the southern half of which has been removed by the waves of the sea. There is, moreover, an external margin of black volcanic rooks, which belong to an anterior condition of things. These have been dislocated and broken up by forces acting |