356 ST. HELENA. [CHAP. ua. 



been caused by the entire destruction of the woods, and the consequent 

 loss of food and shelter, which occurred during the early part of the 

 last century. 



The history of the changes, which the elevated plains of Longwood 

 and Deadvvood have undergone, as given in General Beatson's account 

 of the island, is extremely curious. Both plains, it is said, -in former 

 times were covered with wood, and were therefore called the Great 

 Wood. So late as the year 1716 there were many trees, but in 1724 

 the old trees had mostly fallen ; and as goats and hogs had been 

 suffered to range about, all the young trees had been killed. It appears 

 also from the official records, that the trees were unexpectedly, some 

 years afterwards, succeeded by a wire grass, which spread over the 

 whole surface.* General Beatson adds that now this plain " is covered 

 with fine sward, and is become the finest piece of pasture on the 

 island." The extent of surface, probably covered by wood at a former 

 period, is estimated at no less than two thousand acres ; at the present 

 day scarcely a single tree can be found there. It is also said that in 

 1709 there were quantities of dead trees in Sandy Bay; this place is 

 now so utterly desert, that nothing but so well attested an account 

 could have made me believe that they could ever have grown there. 

 The fact, that the goats and hogs destroyed all the young trees as they 

 sprang up, and that in the course of time the old ones, which were safe 

 from their attacks, perished from age, seems clearly made out. Goats 

 were introduced in the year 1502; eighty-six years afterwards, in the 

 time of Cavendish, it is known that they were exceedingly numerous. 

 More than a century afterwards, in 1731, when the evil was complete 

 and irretrievable, an order was issued that all stray animals should be 

 destroyed. It is very interesting thus to find, that the arrival of animals 

 at St. Helena in 1501, did not change the whole aspect of the island, 

 until a period of two hundred and twenty years had elapsed ; for the 

 goats were introduced in 1502, and in 1724 it is said "the old trees had 

 mostly fallen." There can be little doubt that this great change in the 

 vegetation affected not only the land-shells, causing eight species to 

 become extinct, but likewise a multitude of insects. 



St. Helena, situated so remote from any continent, in the midst of a 

 great ocean, and possessing a unique Flora, excites our curiosity. The 

 eight land-shells, though now extinct, and one living Succinea, are 

 peculiar species found nowhere else. Mr. Cuming, however, informs 

 me that an English Helix is common here, its eggs no doubt having 

 been imported in some of the many introduced plants. Mr. Cuming 

 collected on the coast sixteen species of sea-shells, ot which seven, as 

 far as he knows, are confined to this island. Birds and insects.f as 



* Beatson's " St Helena." Introductory chapter, p. 4. 



t Among these few insects, I was surprised to find a small Aphodius (nov. 

 spec.) and an Oryctes, both extremely numerous under dung. When the 

 island was discovered it certainly possessed no quadruped, excepting perhaps 

 & mouse : it becomes, therefore, a difficult point to ascertain, whether these 

 stercovoi ous insects have since been imported by accident, or if aborigines, 

 on what food they formerly subsisted. On the banks of the Plata, where^ 



