562
mIy. Hoping hillocks, covered with rich verdure,, and interfperfed-
with fertile vallies, which contained gardens, orchards, and
various plantations. Many paftures furrounded by en-
dofures of ftone, were filled with a fmall, but fine breed
of cattle, and with Englith fheep ; and every valley was
provided with a little rivulet, many of which probably take
their rife near two high mountains in the midft of the
ifland, which are frequently involved in clouds. We
eroded feveral hills, and looked down into Sandy Bay, which
is a fmall cove fituated on the oppofite part of the ifland, and
defended by a battery. The view was here romantic, the
mountains being covered with thick wild woods to their
fummits, and feveral of them, efpecially that named Diana’s
Peak, riling in the mod elegant forms. The rocks and
ftones in this higher part of the ifland, were quite different
from thofe in the valley which we had left. Below they
bore evident marks of the exiftence of a former volcano ;
but here above, they confided of a dark grey clayey ftone in
ftrata, or in fome places of lime-ftone, and in others of an
unftuous foft ftone, like foap-rock*. The foil which
* Thefe obfervations do not agree with thofe in Dr. Hawkefworth’s Compilation,
vol. I I I . p. 795. T h a t volcanos are always feated in the higheft mountains
o f the country where they are found, is an opinion contradi&ed by many fa£ts;
and the correfpondence o f angles in oppofite mountains, is not more evident
to critical oblervers, than landfcapes on Florentine marbles. Dr. Hawkefworth
has generally been unfortunate in his remarks on Nature, as well as in his.
philofophical digreffions, and often mifunderftood M. Pauw and de Buffon,
from whom he has freely copied without making the lcaft acknowledgment. I f
the
■ covers thefe ftrata, is in many places a rich mould, from may.
fix to ten inches deep, and a variety of plants thrive in it
with luxuriance. I found feveral fhrubs on this excurfion,
which I had feen in no other part of the world, and among
them were thofe which the inhabitants named cabbage-
trees, gum-trees, and red-wood -, the former thrive in places
where the ground is very moift; but the latter are always
found on the ridge of hills where the foil is dry | The
cabbage-tree is one of the indigenous fpecies, and has rather
large leaves ; but after many repeated enquiries, I found
that it was never made ufe of any other way, than as
fuel, and that no reafon could be affigned why it has obtained
that name. It muft not be confounded with the
cabbage-tree of America, India, and the South Seas, which
is a fpecies of palm.
We were thoroughly wetted feveral times by fmart
Growers, after each of which the heat of the fun dried us in
a few minutes. We flopped every Have whom we met
on the road; in order to enquire of him what treatment
•the.readeriis defirous of knowing the true Hate o f volcanos, we will venture.to
refer him to Ferber’s letters to Baron Born, London, 1776. Rafpe Specimen
Globi Terraquei, &c. Amfterd. 1763. Alfo Mr. Rafpe’ s Account o f fome Ger-
•man volcanos, London, 177^*
* T h is difference is . confequentiy not. owing to the diverfity o f the climate,
if! various parts of the ifland. .1 have feen all thefe plants growing at fhort
Biftances afunder, and the ifland upon the whole is not fo immenfely high, as to
Admit of feveral climates. See Hawkefworth’ s Compilation, vol. III. p. 796.
4 C 2 he