OCR Text |
Show 584 ST. HELENA. July, 1836. indeed I believe all the birds have been introduced within late years. Partridges and pheasants are tolerab~y abunda~t : the island is much too English, not to be subJect to stnct game-laws. I was told of a more unjust sacrifice to such ordinances, than I ever heard of even in England. The poor people formerly used to burn a plant, which grows on the coast rocks, and export soda ; but a peremptory order came out prohibiting this practice, and giving as a reason, that the partridges would have nowhere to build! In my walks, I passed more than once over the grassy plain, bounded by deep valleys, on which Longwood stands. Viewed from a short distance, it appears like a respectable gentleman's country-seat. In front there are a few cultivated fields, and beyond them, the hill of coloured rocks called the Flagstaff, on decayed vegetable matter) and two species of Phanreus, common in such situations. On the opposite side of the Cordillera in Chiloe, another species of this genus is exceedingly abundant, and it buries the dung of cattle in large earthen balls beneath the ground. There is reason to believe that the genus Phanreus, before the introduction of cattle acted as scavengers to man. In Great Britain those beetles, which find support in the matter, which has already contributed towards the life of other and larger animals, are so numerous, that I suppose there are at least one hundred different kinds. Considering this, and observing what a quantity of food is thus lost on the plains of La Plata, I imagined I saw an instance where man had disturbed that chain, by which so many animals are linked together in their native country. To this view, however, Van Diemen's Land offers an exception (in the same manner as St. Helena does in a much lesser degree), for I found there four species of Onthophagus, two of Aphodius, and one of a third genus, very abundant under the dung of cows ; yet these latter animals had then been introduced only thirty-three years . Previously to that time, the Kangaroo and some other small animals were' the only quadrupeds ; and their dung is of a very different quality from that of their successors introduced by man. Tn England the greater number of stercovorous beetles are confined in their appetites; that is, they do not depend indifferently on any quadruped for the means of subsistence. The change, therefore, in habits, which must have taken place in Van Diemen's Land, is the more remarkable.! am indebted to the Rev. F. W. Hope, who, I hope, will permit me to call him my master in Entomology, for information respecting the foregoing, and other insects. July, 1836. ST. HELENA. 585 and the square black mass of the Barn. On the whole the view is rather bleak and uninteresting. The scrupulous degree to which the coast must formerly have been guarded, is quite extraordinary: there are alarm houses, alarm guns, and alarm stations on every peak. I was much struck with the number of forts and picket houses, on the line leading down to Prosperous Bay. One would have supposed that this at least was an easy descent: I found it however a mere goat-path, and in one spot the use of ropes, which were fixed into rings in the cliff, were almost indispensable. At the present day two artillery-men are kept there; for what use it is not easy to conjecture. Prosperous Bay, although with so flourishing a name, has nothing more attractive than a wild sea-beach, and black utterly barren rocks. The only inconvenience I suffered in my walks, was from the impetuous winds. One day I noticed a cu1'ious circumstance : standing on the edge of a plain, terminated by a great cliff of about a thousand feet in depth, I saw at the distance of a few yards right to windward, some tern, struggling against a very strong breeze, whilst, where I stood, the air was quite calm. Approaching close to the brink, l stretched out my arm, which immediately felt the full force of the wind: an invisible barrier of two yards wide, separated a strongly agitated from a perfectly calm air. The current meeting the bold face of the cliff, must have been reflected upwards at a certain angle, within which plane there necessarily would be either an eddy or a calm. I so much enjoyed my rambles among the rocks and mountains of St. Helena, that I felt almost sorry on the morning of the 14th to descend to the town. Before noon I was on board, and the Beagle made sail for Ascension. We reached the anchorage of the latter place on the evening of the 19th (July). Those who have beheld a volcanic island, situated within an arid climate, will be able at once to picture to themselves the aspect of Ascension. They will imagine smooth conical hills of a bright red colour, with |