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Show 586 ASCE:'IISION. July, 18 36 their summits generally truncated, rising distinct out of a level surface of black rugged lava. A principal mound in the centre of the island, seems the father of the lesser cones. It is called Green Hill; its name is taken from the faintest tinge of that colour, which at this time of the year was barely perceptible from the anchorage. To complete this desolate scene, the black rocks on the coast are lashed by a wild and turbulent sea. The settlement is near the beach; it consists of several houses and barracks placed irregularly, but well built of white freestone. The only inhabitants are marines, and some negroes liberated from slave-ships, who are paid and victualled by government. There is not a private person on the island. Many of the marines appeared well contented with their situation; they think it better to serve their one-and-twenty years on shore, let it be what it may, than in a ship : in which choice, if I were a marine, I would most heartily agree. The next morning I ascended Green Hill, 28•10 feet high, and thence walked across the island to the windward point. A good cart-road leads from the coast settlement to the houses, gardens, and fields, placed near the summit of the central mountain. On the roadside there are milestones, and likewise cisterns, where each thirsty passer-by, can drink some good water. Similar care is displayed in each part of the establishment, and especially in the management of the springs, so that a single drop of water shall not be lost: indeed the whole island may be compared to a huge ship kept in first-rate order. I could not help, when admiring the active industry which had created such effects out ~f such means, at the same time regretting that it was wasted on so poor and trifling an end. M. Lesson has remarked with justice, that the English nation alone would have thought of making the island of Ascension a productive spot; any other people would have held it without any further views, as a mere fortress in the ocean. Near the coast nothing grows ; a little inland an occa- July, 1836. ASCENSI0::\1. 587 sional green castor-oil plant, and a few grasshoppers (true friends of the desert), may be met with. Some grass is scattered over the surface of the central elevated region, and the whole much resembles the worse parts of the Welsh mountains. But scanty as the pasture appears, about six hundred sheep, many goats, a few cows and horses, all thrive well on it. Of native animals, rats and land-crabs swarm in numbers : of native birds, there are none; but the guineafowl, imported from the Cape de Verd Islands, is abundant, and the common fowl has likewise run wild. Some cats, which were originally turned out to destroy the rats and mice have increased so as to become a great plague. The ' I island is entirely destitute of trees, in which, and in every other respect, it is very far inferior to St. Helena. Mr. ·Dring tells me, that the witty people of the latter place say, "we know we live on a rock, but the poor people of Ascension live on a cinder:" the distinction in truth is very just. On the succeeding days, I took long walks and examined some rather curious points in the mineralogical composition of some of the volcanic rocks, to which I was guided by the kindness of Lieut. Evans. On the basaltic masses, which are daily washed by the tide, most curious calcareous incrustations have been deposited. They resemble in form certain cryptogamic plants, especially the Marchantire; their surface is perfectly smooth and glossy, and their colour black, which seems owing to animal matter. I have shown these incrustations to several geologists, and not one guessed th~ir true ongm. Any one would suppose that they had been the product of fire, rather than of a deposition of calcareous matter, now constantly undergoing a round of decay and renovation from the action of the breakers. Near the settlement where these incrustations occur, there is a large beach of calcareous sand, entirely composed of comminuted and rounded fragments of shells and corals. The lower part of this, from the percolation of water containing calcareous matter in solution, soon becomes consolidated, and is used |