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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, ivhich 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, 2840 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
of 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 occasional
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 tbe 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 guinea-
fowl, 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
island is entirely destitute of trees, in which, and in every
other respect, it is very far inferior to St. Helena. Mr.
Dring teUs 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
cryptogamie plants, especially the Marchantioe ; their surface is
perfectly smooth and glossy, and their colour black, ivhich
seems owing to animal matter. I have shown these incrustations
to several geologists, and not one guessed their true
origin. 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 sheUs and corals. The lower part
of this, from the percolation of water containing calcareous
matter in solution, soon becomes consolidated, and is used