2 ST. JAGO CAPE DE VERB ISLANDS. [CHAP! i. 



steps of table-land, interspersed with some truncate conical hills, 

 and the horizon is bounded by an irregular chain of more lofty 

 mountains. The scene, as beheld through the hazy atmosphere 

 of this climate, is one of great interest ; if, indeed, a person, 

 fresh from sea, and who has just walked, for the first time, in a 

 grove of cocoa-nut trees, can be a judge of anything but his own 

 happiness. Tha island would generally be considered as very 

 uninteresting ; but to any one accustomed only to an English 

 landscape, the novel aspect of an utterly sterile land possesses 

 a grandeur which more vegetation might spoil. A single green 

 leaf can scarcely be discovered over wide tracts of the lava plains ; 

 yet flocks of goats, together with a few cows, contrive to exist. 

 It rains very seldom, but during a short portion of the year 

 heavy torrents fall, and immediately afterwards a light vegeta- 

 tion springs out of every crevice. This soon withers ; and upon 

 such naturally formed hay the animals live. It had not now 

 rained for an entire year. When the island was discovered, the 

 immediate neighbourhood of Porto Praya was clothed with trees,* 

 the reckless destruction of which has caused here, as at St. Helena, 

 and at some of* the Canary islands, almost entire sterility. The 

 broad, flat-bottomed valleys, many of which serve during a few 

 days only in the season as watercourses, are clothed with 

 thickets of leafless bushes. Few living creatures inhabit these 

 valleys. The commonest bird is a kingfisher (Dacelo lagoensis), 

 which tamely sits on the branches of the castor-oil plant, and 

 thence darts on grasshoppers and lizards. It is brightly coloured, 

 but not so beautiful as the European species : in its flight, man- 

 ners, and place of habitation, which is generally in the driest 

 valley, there is also a wide difference. 



One day, two of the officers and myself rode to Eibeira Grande, 

 a village a few miles eastward of Porto Praya. Until we 

 reached the valley of St. Martin, the country presented its usual 

 dull brown appearance ; but here, a very small rill of water pro- 

 duces a most refreshing margin of luxuriant vegetation. In the 

 course of an hour we arrived at Ribeira Grande, and were sur- 

 prised at the sight of a large ruined fort and cathedral. This 

 little town, before its harbour was filled up, was the principal 



* I state this on the authority of Dr. E. Diofienhach, in his German 

 translation of the first edition of this Journal. 



