TRACTS— PART I. 



SECTION I. 



St. Helena once a woody Island — cause of its Denudation — Plans proposed 

 for restoring Wood, and extending Cultivation — the Institution of Goat 

 ranges injurious — Extermination of the Goats recommended. 



In the year 1502, when St. Helena was first discovered, its inte- 

 rior was one entire forest — even some of the precipices, overhang- 

 ing the sea, were covered with gum-wood trees. 



Goats, unhappily (as it has proved) for the island, were first 

 introduced in the year 1513, and from this period to 1588, so 

 greatly had they multiplied, that Captain Cavendish i-elates " there 

 were thousands, and that they were seen one or two hundred 

 together, and sometimes in a flock almost a mile long. 



Those early accounts, in respect to wood, are fully corrobo- 

 rated by the records, by the testimony of persons now living, and 

 by the fragments of trees which are occasionally found on those 

 hills that are now the most desolate and barren. 



Within the last fifty years many gum-wood trees grew on the 

 hills between Rupert's and Dead-wood. — This name, indeed, 

 evidently implies there was a forest there. On the Barn-Hill, 

 asd near Lot's Wife, pieces of ebony are still remaining ; and 

 there is a tradition that a thick wood occupied Half-tree-hollow, 



B 



