but like many other useful creatures, their value is greatly underrated.
There are about 400 of them in the Island, and the labouring
man could not get on without his donkey or donkeys, which are
driven up and down the steep roads in packs of twenty or thirty at
a time, firewood, vegetables, hay, milk, poultry, and all country
produce that is not carried by cart or dray, are conveyed into the
town on their backs, and they fetch out supplies of food, manure,
and other necessaries for the tiller of the soil. I t has often struck
me that if the donkeys of St. Helena could express a wish, it would
be for a branch establishment of the JEtoyal Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals. Poor creatures! TJp and down those steep roads
they travel wdth that patience which only donkey-nature knows, often
having to bear an overload independent of the owner striding across
the top of it, while an unfeeling urchin of a boy, with a big stick,
whacks the poor brute up the hill, sometimes bleeding, to its home ;
there it is unloaded, and, with a kick from its owner, sent to browse
upon furze bushes or anything else it can pick up on the nearest
common until next day, when it has, perhaps, to go through a similar
programme. Ho attempt is made to improve the breed, and the
donkeys of St. Helena are small though hardy animals. Their number
has been of late considerably reduced through their being employed
to carry in lime from Lot’s Wife Ponds and Sandy Bay, so that
their price has risen from 10s. to 21. or 3/. each. They were introduced
soon after the discovery of the Island by the Portuguese,
Mules are not much used in St. Helena, though a few have lately
been imported.
Bos, Linn.
B . t a u r u s , Linn.—Oxen and cattle in number average about
1300, but a larger quantity could be well reared and supported in the
Island, and prevent, to some extent, the large importation that
annually takes place from the Cape of Good Hope. The St. Helena
cow (of which there is no record when it was introduced) is a rather
small well-built animal, adapted to the hilly country which it inhabits.
I t gives a scanty supply of milk, which might, without doubt, be increased
by better feeding than that to which it is generally accustomed.
Ovis, Linn.
O. a r i e s , Linn.—Sheep run almost wild over the hilly outskirts
of the Island. I t has been estimated that there are about 5000,
M AM M A L IA . 85
and that many more could be supported. Nevertheless, they
are not much cared for or looked after, and large numbers are annually
imported for consumption from the Cape of Good Hope. “ Island
mutton” is exceedingly good, preferable to that imported from the;
Cape, and much resembles Welsh mutton both in appearance and
flavour..
Hircus, Linn.
H. segagrus, Linn.—Goats are quite wild. I t has been estimated
that 1000 or more of them exist. They have been one cause of the
extinction of the indigenous plants, and, although war has been waged
against them, and even their extermination threatened on seyeral occasions,
they still remain almost useless and destructive to vegetation.
Sus, Linn.
S. scrofa, Linn.—Pew cottages or huts exist without a pig, which,
as in the Irish cabin, takes its place as a member of the family. I t
feeds chiefly on acorns and the roots and stems of Guinea yam, Oalla
(Btkiopica, when boiled. I t was introduced by the Portuguese
when the Island was discovered, with a view to affording food for
future voyagers, and there are white as well as black, and long as well
as short-nosed pigs.
O r d e r C e t a c e a .
At St. Helena, the neighbourhood of which affords a good whaling
ground, there are five kinds of cetaceous animals commonly known.
The exciting, and in many instances highly remunerative, occupation
of whaling is, however, exclusively carried on in the South Atlantic
by American vessels, at least sixty or seventy of which call at the
Island every year. They are ships averaging from 80 to 200 tons
burthen, and rendezvous at the Island for refitting, re-provisioning
and transhipping their oil to those vessels which may be homeward*
bound, about the month of October, previous to their cruising south
ward towards Tristan d’Acunha. The local whaling ground
extends from 30 to 180 miles off the Island, but the vessels are
constantly seen cruising close to the land during that portion of the
year from April to July, and whales have even been taken within a
few miles of the roadstead. Beyond the circulation of money which
these vessels calling at the Island necessarily occasion, the St
Helenians derive no profit whatever from this source of wealth which
hes at their very doors. One or more whaling shins have been fitted