64 A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER." 



San Domingo Valley, with its succession of mountain ridges 

 and peaks becoming bluer and bluer in the distance, is one of 

 the finest mountain valleys I have ever seen, and the tropical 

 vegetation gives it an especial charm. The sight of such a place 

 is particularly delightful to a man who has for weeks been 

 trudging the arid hills and plains of St. Vincent, and who has 

 just ascended to it from the almost equally sterile plains about 

 the coast of San Jago. 



The gale did not come as was expected, and another oppor- 

 tunity of landing being afforded, I went with Buchanan to look 

 at the peculiar limestone bed described by Darwin.* On our 

 way we passed through the grove of cocoanut trees ; at the foot 

 of these trees arehiumerous holes of a large land crab (Cardisoma) ; 

 the female of this land crab was found by Von Willemoes Suhm 

 to carry its eggs and newly hatched young under its abdomen ; 

 the young emerge from the eggs in the larval zoea condition,! 

 and are found- in that state attached to the abdominal legs of the 

 mother. 



As we made our way along the cliff we disturbed a flock of 

 rock pigeons which breed abundantly in ' the cliff, and also a 

 wild cat, which was no doubt watching them. The cat was of 

 a reddish tabby colour; they are very abundant on the island, 

 and it is not easy to understand how so many animals of prey, 

 cats, hawks, crows, &c, manage to subsist here. In the quail 

 season no doubt they have abundance, but in the dry season they 

 must often be nearly starved. 



The limestone band exposed in the cliff around the harbour 

 is topped by a thick mass of basaltic lava, which as it flowed 

 over the limestone baked and heated it, and altered its structure. 

 The limestone band crumbles and weathers away, and thus 

 leaves a hollow all along the cliff about half way up its height, 

 which forms a convenient path for men and goats. By the 

 cropping out of the limestone the under surface of the lava- 



* C. Darwin, " Journal of Researches," pp. 5, 6. 



t R. Von Willemoes Suhm, " On some Atlantic Crustacea from the 

 1 Challenger ' Expedition." " On the Development of a Land Crab." Trans. 

 Linn. Soc, 2 Ser. Zoology, Pt. I, 1875, p. 46. Proc. R. Soc, No. 170, 1876, 

 p. 582. 



