Extraordinary Abundance of *' Isopodis." 3 1 5 



other, which seem like the grave-mounds of a hundred bygone 

 generations of plants. Frequently, at the foot of a block of 

 pumice, all overrun with grasses of all sorts, one comes upon 

 a moss or a stem of fern on one of the pieces of lava that 

 has been washed up, or perceives with amazement in some out^ 

 of-the-way place, and utterly neglected, good old acquaint- 

 ances from Europe, such as carrots, parsley, potatoes, &c., 

 which apparently have been begun to be cultivated on some of 

 the terraces, whence they have propagated themselves in 

 a wild state all over the island. But not a tree, or bush, is to 

 be met with throughout the island. 



In like manner, although the zoologist seemed to have but a 

 poor prospect at St. Paul, it presented materials for most satis- 

 factory speculation to the attentive naturalist. Only one of the 

 grasses is infested by an insect, which appears in great num- 

 bers, a very tiny cicada (cricket), the Delphis hemiptera, of 

 which, according to the zoologist of the expedition, it is hard 

 to say whether it became indigenous to St. Paul before, or con- 

 temporaneous with the arrival of man. Among other insects 

 that have certainly been introduced here, the zoologist found 

 the common bluebottle-fly, a gnat, the universally found cock- 

 roach, the book-tick {acarus eruditus), one kind of earwig, and 

 the flea; besides the Isopodis^ our common barrel-worm,* in 

 almost fabulous quantities. These animals invariably follow 

 man wherever he plants his foot, living upon garbage or 



* These loathsome animals cover the island in such quantities that one of the 

 naturalists reckoned them at 6,000,000,000, counting 100 as the minimimi to each 

 square foot of the island. 



