from the Island of St. Vincent. 91 



the Heteromerous type reigns predominant ; for whilst as many 

 as thirteen (out of the thirty-two here alluded to) are members 

 of the Heteromera, only nine belong to the Geodephaga, three to 

 the Rhynchophora, two to the Priocerata, and one to each of the 

 great sections Hydradephaga, Necrophaga, Cordylocerata, Pseudo- 

 trimera, and Brachelytra. So that, if we may take St. Vincent 

 as a fair index of the whole, it is not difficult to foretell the im- 

 mense preponderance which the Heteromera will be found to 

 possess throughout the entire archipelago of the Cape de Verdes. 



There are but few accounts of these remote and desolate 

 islands containing anything of interest to a naturalist. Mr. 

 Darwin, in his admirable ' Journal of Researches,' gives us per- 

 haps the best that has yet been published ; but his observations 

 refer only to St. Jago. Perhaps the following extract, therefore, 

 from a letter received from my nephew, F. W. Hutton, Esq., 

 bearing on the general features of St. Vincent, may not be out 

 of place : — 



" I landed," says he, " on the 11th of June, 1857. The town 

 (if it deserves the name, for it has only about 200 inhabitants in it) 

 is built on the north-west side of the island, and is situated in 

 the centre of a huge extinct volcanic crater, about four miles in 

 diameter, the western side of which the sea has broken down, 

 and has filled up half the basin, forming the harbour of Porto 

 Grande. It is the only inhabited part of the island, with the 

 exception of a small house belonging to the English consul, 

 which is built on the rim of the crater. The houses look clean 

 outside, but, like the whited sepulchre, are all filth and abomi- 

 nation within. The interior of the country is not much better : 

 either rough red volcanic hills, covered with scorise and ashes, 

 constitute the foreground, whilst high broken cliffs of lava shut 

 in the view ; or else you stand on the naked lava and see below 

 you these * rough red hills.' The island is almost entirely de- 

 void of vegetation. A few unhealthy-looking shrubs and plants 

 grow in the sandy valleys ; whilst on the mountains, between 

 the blocks of lava which lie thrown about, a scanty crop of long 

 but withered grass is perceptible, and affords sustenance for the 

 few goats and donkeys that live there. I took six species of 

 Coleoptera in the island, chiefly from under the plants in the 

 valleys — the big one [Trichosternum striatuni] and the black one 

 [Oxi/cara pedinoides] being by far the most common. Of the 

 red one [Eremonomus Huttoni], out of about 200 specimens, I 

 only found one alive. I saw no moths or butterflies; but one 

 smooth light-green caterpillar (about an inch and a half long), 

 with a black shining head. I saw part of the skin of a snake*, 



* As snakes are altogether unknown in tlie Canaries and Madeira (and 

 1 believe also at the Azores), I felt that there was possibly some error in 



7* 



