10 FERNANDO NORONHA. [CHAP. i. 



amusing to watch how quickly a large aud active crab (Graspus), 

 which inhabits the crevices of the rock, stole the fish from the side 

 of the nest, as soon as we had disturbed the parent birds. Sir \V. 

 Syrnonds, one of the few persons who have landed here, informs roc 

 that he saw the crabs dragging even the young birds out of their 

 nests, and devouring them. Not a single' plant, not even a lichen, 

 grows on this islet ; yet it is inhabited by several insects and spiders. 

 The following list completes, I believe, the terrestrial fauna : a fly 

 (Olfersia) living on the booby, and a tick which must have come 

 here as a parasite on the birds ; a small brown moth, belonging to 

 a genus that feeds on feathers ; a beetle (Quedius) and a woodlouse 

 from beneath the dung ; and lastly, numerous spiders, which I sup- 

 pose prey on these small attendants and scavengers of the water- 

 fowl. The often repeated description of the stately palm and other 

 noble tropical plants, then birds, and lastly man, taking possession 

 of the coral islets as soon as formed, in the Pacific, is probably not 

 correct ; I fear it destroys the poetry of this story, that feather and 

 dirt-feeding and parasitic insects and spiders should be the first 

 inhabitants of newly formed oceanic land. 



The smallest rock in the tropical seas, by giving a foundation for 

 the growth of innumerable kinds of seaweed and compound animals, 

 supports likewise a large number of fish. The sharks and the 

 seamen in the boats maintained a constant struggle which should 

 secure the greater share of the prey caught by the fishing-lines. I 

 have heard that a rock near the Bermudas, lying many miles out at 

 sea, and at a considerable depth,was first discovered by the circum- 

 stance of fish having been observed in the neighbourhood. 



FKRXANDO NORONHA, Feb. 20th. As far as I was enabled to 

 observe, during the few hours we stayed at this place, the constitu- 

 tion of the island is volcanic, but probably not of a recent date. 

 The most remarkable feature is a conical hill, about one thousand 

 feet high, the upper part of which is exceedingly steep, and on one 

 side overhangs its base. The rock is phonolite, and is divided into 

 irregular columns. On viewing one of these isolated masses, at 

 first one is inclined to believe that it has been suddenly -pushed up 

 in a semi-fluid state. At St. Helena, however, I ascertained that 

 some pinnacles, of a nearly similar figure and constitution, had 

 been formed by the injection of melted rock into yielding strata, 

 which thus had formed the moulds for these gigantic obelisks. 



