224 THE ATLANTIC. [chap, i v. 



grades of the service. This depends, doubtless, greatly upon 

 the personal equation of the commandant, but not entirely 

 so ; the old oppressive system under which Ascension, in com- 

 mon with many other ships, suffered some years ago could 

 scarcely exist under ]3resent conditions. ]S[ow, apparently, lit- 

 tle is felt of unpleasant restriction, although the island is un- 

 der military law, and every thing is done in order and at the 

 sound of the bugle. Rations are served out, of food and water, 

 to every family, so much a head, the amount varying with the 

 supply. As the island is in no sense self-supporting, nearly 

 every thing being imported, provisions are only supplied to 

 merchant-ships in case of necessity, and at almost prohibitory 

 rates. At noon, instead of the town -clock lagging out its 

 twelve strokes, the workmen disperse to their midday spell to 

 the sharp, familiar sound of " eight bells." 



The day before we arrived had been most exceptional in the 

 experience of the station. Heavy rain had fallen, as it only 

 knows in the tropics how to fall, for some hours continuously, 

 too rapidly to be absorbed by the porous ashes, which soon suck 

 up any ordinary tropical shower; and the water had roshed 

 down the valley, and swept through the settlement, committing 

 great havoc among their neatly paved streets and squares. Tlie 

 torrent had rushed far out to sea, red with ashes, and had car- 

 ried with it quantities of cinders and lumps of pumice, some 

 of which were still floating about on the surface. 



During our stay we had a pleasant excursion uj) to Green 

 Mountain, where we remained a day or two with Captain East. 

 The road from the settlement is very good, winding up a gen- 

 tle slope for the greater part of the way among the lava ridges. 

 The whole of the lower part of the island is absolutely bar- 

 ren — a waste of stones, with here and there a gnarled cactus- 

 stump and a few solanaceous and portalaceous weeds, which 

 afford scanty food to the guinea-fowl, which, at first introduced 

 from the Cape Yerde Islands, have become rather numerous 



