CHAP. IV.] THE VOYAGE HOME. 225 



ill the rock}^ valleys, and afford a good deal of very exciting, 

 if rather break-neck, sport. The most useful wild plant is the 

 Cape gooseberry (a species of Physalis), which is very com- 

 mon, and yields an abundance of pleasant subacid berries. 

 Vinca rosea has spread all about, in its white and lilac varie- 

 ties, and a tuft of its showy flowers is about the only relief to 

 the general sterility. In a genial tropical climate, prevented 

 from becoming insupjjortably hot and dry by the moisture- 

 laden trade, and with a soil rich from the decomposition of 

 volcanic minerals, it is wonderful what a tendency to vegeta- 

 tion there is. The beds are so porous that the unfrequent rain 

 dries off at once ; but even the slightest shower brings into 

 transient blossom and beauty some little parched-up mummy 

 of a plant in every crevice. If they could only irrigate bit by 

 bit for a few years till enough of vegetable soil had been accu- 

 mulated to make the surface a little more compact and reten- 

 tive, I am sure this wilderness would soon blossom like the rose. 

 Natural causes will carry this out in time ; and no doubt some 

 of Captain East's remote successors in office, a few centuries 

 hence, will be pruning their vines on the slopes of Cross Hill. 



For the last mile the road zigzags up the steep slope of 

 Green Mountain, and the whole character of the scenery sud- 

 denly changes. The clouds, driven before the south-east trade, 

 gather and linger about the to23 of the mountain, and besides 

 a frequent most refreshing mist, a reasonable amount of rain 

 falls ; not only enough to supply the requirements of the little 

 colony on the mountain, but enough (except in exceptionally 

 dry weather) to su2)ply George Town also, whither it is con- 

 veyed from Dampier's Springs and other sources in iron pipes 

 to a reservoir. 



An area on the top of the mountain, of between four and 

 five thousand acres, thus forms an oasis of the most delicious 

 verdure in the middle of the desert, with a charming climate, 

 the thermometer ranging from about 17° to 27° C. 



