45 
and as this memoir of his life would be imperfect without 
some notice of it, some extracts from it shall now follow. 
* We sailed from Table Bay on the 2d November, 1816; 
a liberal supply of agricultural instruments, with a team of 
labouring oxen, and some cattle for breeding, having been 
sent on board at the same time. Two days after, we encoun- 
tered a heavy gale, during which, the animals, standing 
unsheltered on the deck, were so much injured by the roll- 
ing of the ship and by the sea washing over them, that they 
all died before we arrived at our destination, The westerly 
winds, which usually prevail in the high southern latitudes, 
protracted our voyage to the 28th November, but we had 
the good fortune to come to anchor in fine weather, and 
landed all the stores without loss or damage. 
* Tristan da Cunha is situated in 37? 6 S. lat, and in 11° © 
44/ W.long. The whole island is apparently a solid mass of 
rock in the form of a truncated cone, rising abruptly from 
the sea, and ascending at an angle of 45 degrees to the height 
of 3,000 feet. This mass is surmounted by a dome 5,000 
feet high, on the summit of which is the crater of an old 
extinguished volcano. 
* The island is of a circular form, kad about nine leagues 
in circumference. In various places the sea beats home 
against the salient angles of the mountain, rendering it 
impossible to walk round the island. Between those points 
a narrow beach has been formed, by the gradual accumula- 
tion of the fragments of rock daily precipitated from above, 
and is covered in some few places with a layer of fine black 
sand resembling gunpowder, which is, however, kept in 
constant motion, being washed away by one gale, snd cast | 
up by the next. © 
. — *'The face of the mountain, as far as ; the ess of the 
dome, is mostly covered with brushwood, intermixed with | 
fern and long grass, which veil its native ruggedness. — In 
many parts, however, it is completely bare, and presents to 
view the edges of a vast number of strata, arranged horizon- 
tally, or at slight degrees of elevation. These strata. are 
generally 5—10 feet thick, and vary essentially in their i inter- 
