1836.] CHANGES IN THE VEGETATION. 489 



Longwood and Deadwood 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 pas- 

 ture 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 after- 

 wards, in the time of Cavendish, it is known that they were ex- 

 ceedingly 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 

 "[■oats 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. 



* Beatsou's St. Helena. Introductory chapter, p. 4. 



