ASCENSION ISLAND. 561 



Ascension Island. March 27th to April 3rd, 1816. — After a 

 stay of ten days at Monte Video, during which time was afforded 

 for a visit to Buenos Ayres, the ship reached Ascension Island on 

 March 27th. Land Crabs swarm all over this barren and parched 

 volcanic islet. They climb up to the very top of Green Moun- 

 tain, and the larger ones steal the young rabbits from their 

 holes and devour them. They all go down to the sea in the 

 breeding season. 



It always seems strange to me to see Crabs walking about 

 at their ease high up in the mountains, although the occurrence 

 is common enough and not confined to the Tropics. In Japan a 

 Crab is to be met with walking about on the mountain high- 

 roads far inland, at a height of several thousand feet, as much at 

 home there as a beetle or a spider. Crabs of the same genus, 

 Telphusa, live inland on the borders of streams in Greece and 

 Italy. 



The sea is usually so rough around Ascension that a sort of 

 crane is provided at the landing steps with a hanging rope, by 

 which one can swing oneself on shore from a boat when it is too 

 rough for the boat to come close to the steps. 



Close to the Dockyard is the Turtle Pond, in which there 

 were over a hundred Turtles at the time of our visit. At the 

 side of the pond an enclosed area of sand is provided, in which 

 the Turtles dig great holes, large enough to bury themselves in, 

 laying their eggs at the bottom of them. Some Turtles were 

 still laying, but a good many lots of eggs were beginning to 

 hatch out. 



The Turtle eggs have a flexible leathery shell, and are 

 rather smaller than a billiard ball, and of the same shape. 

 The fresh-laid egg is never quite full, so that there is always 

 a slight fold or wrinkle in the yielding shell, and the seamen 

 sometimes puzzle themselves by trying to squeeze the egg so as 

 to get the dint out, but it always forms in a fresh place notwith- 

 standing their efforts. When the eggs are near the time of 

 hatching they are perfectly filled out, the shell being tense, 

 no doubt from the development of small quantities of gas 

 within it. 



The sand in which the eggs are Hatched does not feel warm 



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