8 FERNANDO NORONHA. [CHAP. i. 



find substances harder than the enamel of teeth, and coloured surfaces 

 as well polished as those of a fresh shell, reformed through inorganic 

 means from dead organic matter mocking, also, iri shape some of 

 the lower vegetable productions. 



We found on St. Paul's only two kinds of birds the booby and the 

 noddy. The former is a species of gannet, and the latter a tern. Both 

 are of a tame and stupid disposition, and are so unaccustomed to 

 visitors, that I could have killed any number of them with my 

 geological hammer. The booby lays her eggs on the bare rock ; but 

 the tern makes a very simple nest with seaweed. By the side of many 

 of these nests a small flying-fish was placed ; which, I suppose, had 

 been brought by the male bird for its partner. It was amusing to 

 watch how quickly a large and active crab (Graspus), which inhabits 

 the crevices of the rock, stole the fish from the side of the nest, as soon 

 as we had disturbed the parent birds. Sir W. Symonds, one of the 

 few persons who have landed here, informs me that he saw the crabs 

 dragging even the young birds out of their nests, and devouring them. 

 Not a single plant, not even a lichen, grows on this islet ; yet it is 

 inhabited by several insects and spiders. The following list completes, 

 I believe, the terrestrial fauna : a fly (Olfersia) living on the booby, and 

 a tick which must have come here as a parasite on the birds ; a small 

 brown moth, belonging to a genus that feeds on feathers ; a beetle 

 (Quedius) and a woodlouse from beneath the dung ; and lastly, 

 numerous spiders, which I suppose prey on these small attendants and 

 scavengers of the waterfowl. The often repeated description of the 

 stately palm and other noble tropical plants, then birds, and lastly 

 man, taking possession of the coral islets as soon as formed, in the 

 Pacific, is probably not quite correct ; I fear it destroys the poetry of 

 this story, that feather and dirt-feeding and parasitic insects and 

 spiders should be the first inhabitants of newly formed oceanic land. 



The smallest rock in the tropical seas, by giving a foundation for the 

 growth of innumerable kinds of seaweed and compound animals, 

 supports likewise a large number of fish. The sharks and the seamen 

 in the boats maintained a constant struggle which should secure the 

 greater share of the prey caught by the fishing-lines. I have heard that 

 a rock near the Bermudas, lying many miles out at sea, and at a con- 

 siderable depth, was first discovered by the circumstance of fish having 

 been observed in the neighbourhood. 



FERNANDO NORONHA, Feb. zoth. As far as I was enabled to observe, 

 during the few hours we stayed at this place, the constitution of the 

 island is volcanic, but probably not of a recent date. The most remark- 

 able feature is a conical hill, about one thousand feet high, the upper 

 part of which is exceedingly steep, and on one side overhangs its base. 

 The rock is phonolite, and is divided into irregular columns. On viewing 

 one of these isolated masses, at first one is inclined to believe that it 

 has been suddenly pushed up in a semi-fluid state. At St. Helena, 

 however, I ascertained that some pinnacles, of a nearly similar figure 

 and constitution, had been formed by the injection of melted rock into 



