REPORT OX THE BOTANY OF THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 127 



to reach the interior of the island, though they climbed the cliffs to a considerable height. 

 Concerning this part, Mr Knight says : — 



" What struck us as remarkable was, that though in this cove there was no live vegetation of any 

 kind, there were traces of an abundant extinct vegetation. The mountain slopes were thickly covered 

 with dead wood — wood, too, that had evidently long since been dead ; some of these leafless trunks 

 were prostrate, some still stood up as they had grown ; many had evidently been trees of considerable 

 size, bigger round than a man's body. They were rotten, brittle, and dry, and made glorious fuel. 

 This wood was close-grained, of a red colour, and much twisted. When we afterwards discovered 

 that over the whole of this extensive island, from the beach up to the summit of the highest mountain 

 — at the bottom and on the slopes of every now barren ravine, on whose loose rolling soil no vegeta- 

 tion could possibly take root — these dead trees were strewed as closely as is possible for trees to grow, 

 and when we further perceived that they all seemed to have died at one and the same time, as if plague- 

 struck, and that not one single live specimen, young or old, was to be found anywhere, our amaze- 

 ment was increased. At one time, Trinidad must have been one magnificent forest, presenting to 

 passing vessels a far different appearance to that it now does. The descriptions given in the 

 Directory allude to these forests ; therefore, whatever catastrophe it may have been that killed off all 

 the vegetation of the island, it must have occurred within the memory of man. Looking at the 

 rotten, broken-up condition of the rock, and the nature of the soil, where there is soil — a loose 

 powder, not consolidated like earth, but having the appearance of fallen volcanic ash — I could not 

 help imagining that some great eruption had brought about all this desolation." 



Land-crabs, and various kinds of sea-birds, were there in myriads, as indeed in all parts 

 of the island. Afterwards the party landed in another part of South- West Bay, whence 

 they proceeded to the summit of the mountain, encountering at first no living vegetation 

 except a wiry grass, which was succeeded by dwarf ferns, and then on the higher parts they 

 walked through groves of tree-ferns. The north-west coast was only reached after some 

 privations and dangerous climbing, and one night spent amid the horrors of "millions"' 

 of land-crabs. From the few words of description given, Mr Knight seems to have met 

 with most of the plants collected by Dr Copeland, and one purslane (Portulaca) not seen 

 apparently by the latter. The plant " whose name I know not, spreading far and wide with 

 rope-like creepers, bearing large leaves and pink flowers, and a bean about the size of a 

 haricot," was doubtless the Canavalia collected by Dr Copeland ; and the shrub-like myrtle 

 on the summit, which Knight " satisfied himself was not the young growth of the species of 

 tree, whose dead specimens were strewn over the whole island," perhaps the same species of 

 Eugenia, Beyond the organisms mentioned, there was no life, "not even insect." The 

 ravine by which Knight and his party finally succeeded in reaching the north-east coast 

 was in all probability the same as that ascended by Copeland, for he says it was clear 

 that no other route lay from that side up the mountains. On reaching the coast, they 

 bore southward until they arrived at the most southerly point of the island, where they 

 were obliged to retrace their steps. No other plants were seen ; and it is evident that 

 very few species of vascular plants exist on the island, perhaps not half a dozen more 

 than are accounted for in this work. 



