r 



ST. PAUL'S KOCKS AND TEINIDAD 95 



vegetation, his happiness to whom the works of Nature 

 have charms, is, for the time, complete. 



Three more Oceanic islands were visited before the Cape, 

 the unusual course west to St. Paul's Eocks, then south to 

 Trinidad off the Brazilian coast, then east to St. Helena, 

 being followed in order to fix certain magnetic determinants. 



On the eight or ten detached rocks of St. Paul, some sixty- 

 feet high, ' a wretched cluster about as big as all the houses in 

 the Crescent put together,' Hooker did not set foot. Landing 

 in the tremendous surf was so dangerous that Captain Eoss 

 gave up the second visit, on which he had intended to take 

 Hooker. Botanically, however, this was little loss. Not even 

 a lichen grew on the rocks, and his shipmates brought him 

 back specimens of the only seaweed which grew there, serving 

 to make a rude rest for the Noddy, interwoven with a few 

 feathers. 



Trinidad was a shade less inhospitable, its valleys possessing 

 little vegetation. Among its mountain crags 



we easily pictured to ourselves the figures of gigantic Turks, 

 bishops, &c., on the summits : there was no wood but a 

 very remarkable tree on the top of the highest hills (2000 

 feet ?) — it struck me that it was a tree fern. All over the 

 coast there are remains of barked white trees lying on their 

 sides, but no live ones. They lay in different directions, 

 and except the introduction of goats has, by eating up all 

 the young trees and leaving the old ones to perish, destroyed 

 the vegetation, as was the case at St. Helena (see Darwin), 

 I am at a loss to conceive how they have so universally 

 disappeared. 



The one accessible beach on the lee side, where a landing was 

 effected in the morning, was stony and barren and hemmed in 

 by precipices ; in the afternoon the surf on the windward 

 side seemed hopeless. However : 



When about to give up the attempt one of the 



party espied a small cove to the N. of the Nine Pin rock, 



and there we landed with great difficulty. A narrow plat- 



. form of rock afforded us a footing. When within 100 yards 



