1836.] AT ST. HELENA. 477 



This elephant is the only one at present on the island ; but 

 it is said others will be sent for. 



May c^th. — We sailed from Port Louis, and, calling at the 

 Cape of Good Hope, on the 8th of July we arrived off St. 

 Helena. This island, the forbidding aspect of which has 

 been so often described, rises abruptly like a huge black 

 castle from the ocean. Near the town, as if to complete 

 nature's defence, small forts and guns fill up every gap 

 in the rugged rocks. The town runs up a flat and narrow 

 valley ; the houses look respectable, and are interspersed 

 with a very few green trees. When approaching the 

 anchorage there was one striking view ; an irregular 

 castle perched on the summit of a lofty hill, and surrounded 

 by a few scattered fir-trees, boldy projected against the sky. 



The next day I obtained lodgings within a stone's throw 

 of Napoleon's tomb:* it was a capital central situation, 

 whence I could make excursions in every direction. 

 During the four days 1 stayed here, I wandered over the 

 island from morning to night, and examined its geological 

 history. My lodgings were situated at a height of about 

 2000 feet ; here the weather was cold and boisterous, with 

 constant showers of rain ; and every now and then the 

 whole scene was veiled in thick clouds. 



Near the coast the rough lava is quite bare : in the 

 central and higher parts, feldspathic rocks by their de- 

 composition have produced a clayey soil, which, where not 

 covered by vegetation, is stained in broad bands of many 

 bright colours. At this season the land, moistened by 

 constant showers, produces a singularly bright green 

 pasture, which lower and lower down, gradually fades 

 away and at last disappears. In latitude 16", and at the 

 trifling elevation of 1500 feet, it is surprising to behold a 

 vegetation possessing a character decidedly British. The 

 hills are crowned with irregular plantations of Scotch firs ; 

 and the sloping banks are thickly scattered over with 

 thickets of gorse, covered with its bright yellow flowers. 

 Weeping-willows are common on the banks of the rivulets, 

 and the hedges are made of the blackberry, producing its 

 well-known fruit. When we consider that the number of 



* After the volumes of eloquence which have poured forth on thin (iul)ject, it 

 i.inpcrous evtn to mention the tomb. A modern traveller, in twelve line*, 

 iflcn.H the poor little island with the following titlea — it in n crave, tomb* 

 i.imid, cemetery, sepulchre, catacomb, •arcopba{fus, minaret, nno m.iii^olriim. 



