FERNANDO DO NORHONA. 79 



low building in which some of the convicts are locked up at night. 

 Farther to the eastward on some low-lying land close to the 

 beach is an old ruined fort, off which we anchored at about 

 4 P.M. 



Captain Nares landed at once and paid a visit to the governor 

 of the island to ask permission for our parties to land and 

 explore, and I availed myself of permission to follow him on 

 shore and hear the result of the interview. The surf was heavy 

 on the sandy beach ; one of our boats was upset in it, and I got a 

 sea round me in landing, up to my neck. 



I found the littoral blue flowered convolvulus (Ipomcea pes 

 caprce), so common in the West Indies and Cape Verde Islands, 

 abundant on the shore. It was beset by a Dodder (Cuscuta), 

 winch parasite was seen twining round it everywhere in masses. 



A horrible pest, a stinging plant, Jatropha urens, one of the 

 Euphorbiacece, was very common. The plant has a thick green 

 stem, and leaves resembling those of our common garden gera- 

 niums in shape, and a small white flower. The plant is covered 

 with fine sharp white bristles, winch sting most abominably. I 

 lassoed a specimen with my knife, lanyard and kicked it up by 

 the roots and carried it on board carefully slung on a stick, but 

 I got stung as I was putting it in paper to dry, though handling 

 it with forceps, and the stinging sensation lasted for more than 

 two days. The pain is like that produced by the nettle, but far 

 more intense. 



The path to the settlement led through the woods. The ground 

 was covered with innumerable large black crickets (Grylhos). 

 These are most astonishingly abundant, especially around the 

 cultivated fields. The woods were also full of flocks of reddish 

 brown doves (Peristera geoffroyi), a species which occurs in 

 Brazil, and has possibly been introduced into the island. They 

 are in vast numbers, and, being scarcely ever shot at, are so tame 

 that we had to throw stones at them to make them take wing. 

 Many of them had nests and eggs, and they probably breed all 

 the year round. 



I saw also a small warbler {Sylvia), with greenish brown 

 plumage, and a bird which, from its appearance and song, I took 

 to be a thrush of some kind. Mice are extraordinarily abundant, 



