2 TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, &c. 



between High Knoll and Ladder Hill ; and that some persons, 

 who had advanced therein, lost their way and perished. 



But tlie most remarkable and positive testimony of the exist- 

 ence of" huge forests" on the Island of St. Helena, is recorded 

 on the consultation dated the 12th of July, 1709, in the following 

 words : 



" Our necessity is so great for want of coals, that we thought it 

 would have put a full stop to our work, but do find that ebony 

 wood will burn lime, and being informed that there are huge 

 quantities of that wood which lie dead on the hills near Sandy 

 Bay, the Governor and Captain Mashborne went there to view 

 it, and found the report true, for that there is abundance indeed, 

 and just by that place where the wood lies, are mountains of 

 extraordinary lime stone ; and it will be much cheaper to our 

 honourable masters to bring lime from thence, ready burnt, (being 

 light) than to fetch that sort of wood (which is very heavy), and 

 bring it to the castle in James's Valley." 



We have thus a series of clear and satisfactory evidence that 

 St. Helena, when first discovered, and for many years afterwards, 

 abounded with trees ; but of those " huge forests" how few ves- 

 tiges are now to be seen ! 



The cause of this sad reverse, in the aspect of the island, is 

 readily ascertained by what is daily passing before us. Ebony, 

 red-wood, white cedar (or gum- wood tree), are all indigenous. 

 They shed great quantities of seed ; and numerous plants are 

 seen annually to spring up, where the trees are secured from the 

 trespass of goats, and black cattle. Such is the case at Long- 

 wood : in some places there are absolutely impervious thickets. — 

 Does not this prove what would naturally take place if the young 

 trees remain undisturbed ; and that many parts of the island 

 would, in the course of a few years, be again covered with wood ? 



