82 



A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER. 



on account of the surf. A large shoal of dolphins (Delphinus) 

 was feeding in the bay close to the shore. 



The governor having first given full permission for explora- 

 tion subsequently retracted it, and sent off a message to say that 

 he would allow no surveying or collecting. This was most 

 unfortunate, since very little is known of the fauna and flora 

 of Fernando do Norhona. 



September 2nd. — I landed with Captain Nares on St. Michael's 

 Mount, a conical outlying mass of phonolith, 300 feet in height. 

 It is comparatively inaccessible, and owing to its steepness has 

 never been cultivated ; hence it seemed likely to yield a fair 

 sample of the indigenous flora of the group. Most of the plants 

 collected proved, when examined at Kew, to be common Brazi- 

 lian forms, but a fig tree (Ficus norhonce) with pendent aerial 

 roots like the banyan, which grew all over the upper parts 

 of the rock, and which in favourable spots forms a tree 30 feet in 

 height, proved to be of a new species and peculiar to the island, 

 as far as is yet known.* 



The only land birds which I saw on the island were the 

 doves, but I saw a nest, probably that of a finch. The principal 



FRIGATE BIRD. TACHYPETES AQUILA. 



bird inhabitants of the island were boobies and noddies of the 

 same species as at St. Paul's Eocks, but far shyer here than there, 



* Ficus norhoTwe. D. Oliver, F.K.S., "Icones Plautarum," Vol. Ill, 

 3rd Ser., p. 18, p. 1222. 



