7! if
and the small extent of the island, the descent,
especially on tlie south side, looks almost precipitous
down to the great rhythmic hlne rollers breaking in
cataracts of snow-A\diite foam npon the cliffs heneath ;
and as the Avind is alAA'ays hlondug sufficiently hard
to make one feel a little unsteady, it takes some
little time to get sufficiently accustomed to the conditions
to enjoy the A'ieAV, AAdiich is certainly magnificent.
The AAdiole island, snch as it is, lies at your
feet like a strangely exaggerated and unskilfully
coloured contour map, the great chasms and crater-
A'alleys, CA'en more weird and desolate, looking at
them from ahove ; and the wide ocean of the deepest
hlne, flecked Avitli AAdiite hy the trade-wind, stretching
round beyond to meet the sky in an unbroken and
solitary circle.
The great curiosity of Ascension is ‘ Wide-awake
Eair ; ’ and althongh Ave had seen many such ‘ fairs,’
perhaps even more Avonderful, during the voyage, they
are ahvays objects of reneAved interest. Erom Green
Mountain or any of the higher peaks one can see,
lying toAvards the shore to the right of the road from
the settlement, a greyish-Avdiite patch some square
miles in extent. This is a hreeding-place of Sterna
fuliginosa, called there the "VYide-awake. The hirds
are in millions, darkening the air Avhen they are
disturbed like smoke ; the eggs are excellent, someAvhat
like a plover’s egg in flavour. Ten thousand
dozen are sometimes gathered in the breeding season
in a single Aveek, and as they are nearly as large as
hen’s eggs, they are of some consideration even as an
article of food.
There are at least four other species of sea-hirds
abundant on the island : the frigate-bird [Taehypetes
aquila), Avhich causes great havoc among the yonng
turtles as they are escaping from their nests and
going doAvn the beach to the sea; two species of
Sula, at least tAvo petrels, and the pretty tropic-
hird [Phaeton cethereus), which here, as apparently
all through the Atlantic, has the tail-feathers pure
white. Several of these hirds breed upon an
outlying islet called Boatswain-hird Island.
Between Christmas and Midsummer, Ascension is
constantly visited for the purpose of breeding hy the
common green tu rtle [Chelone midas). During th a t
time each female is supposed to make three or four
nests. The beaches in some of the bays, particularly
on the Avest side of the island, are composed of a
rough calcareous sand, made up entirely of small,
smooth, rounded pieces of shell. The female tu rtle
scrambles about 100 yards or so ahove high Avater
mark, Avhere she digs a pit eight or ten feet across by
a foot or tAvo deep, and buries in it fifty or sixty
eggs, Avhich she carefully covers over Avitii sand.
She then returns to the Avater till another hatch of
eggs is mature, Avhen she repeats the process in
another place. The yonng come out of the eggs in
ahout a couple of months, and scramhling through
the sand, make their Avay at once to the Avater. The
females are taken hy the usual operation of turning,
as they are going hack to the sea, and are placed iu
ponds into Avliich the tide fioAvs, heloAv the fort at
George Toaa'u. There are ahvays a large number of
the strange-looking creatures in the ponds, Avhence
they are regularly supplied to passing men-of-Avar.
No small turtles are ever seen. The AA'eOiMit of a