190 THE "VOYAGE OF H.M.S CHALLENGER. 



cliffs, which are encrusted with lichens and stained of various colours, often of a deep 

 black, are steep talus slopes covered with oil trees with a few other shrubs sparingly 

 intermingled. At the bottom of the valley is a strip of comparatively level land, on 

 which are cultivated all sorts of tropical fruits, pineapples, bananas, oranges, lemons, 

 guavas, cocoanuts, and coffee ; with cassava, sweet potatoes, and sugar cane as field 

 crops.- All along the valley a little way up the slopes are small huts, where boys are 

 stationed whose duty it is to keep off the monkeys which abound amongst the rocks, and 

 the wfld Blue Rock Pigeons (Columba Uvea), which are very numerous, and were seen 

 flying about in flocks and alighting in the road. The fact of the existence of monkeys in 

 the island is not mentioned in any published account of the place. They must be of some 

 African species imported and run wild, but it would be important to determine what the 

 species is, and future explorers would do well to try and procure a skin. The guide said 

 that the monkeys never came out in wet weather, and so not one of them was seen. The 

 boys kept up a constant shouting, which resounded through the valley. 



At the bottom of the valley is a small stream running rapidly over the stones, like a 

 trout stream, and everywhere very shallow, in which grow water cresses and several 

 familiar English water plants ; two ferns also were noticed on the banks. Two kinds of 

 freshwater shrimps live in the stream under the stones, and are very abundant, notwith- 

 standing the shallowness of the water. One is a Palcemon, a large prawn, as big as the 

 largest specimens of our common river crayfish, and with long and slender biting claws. 

 The other is a very different animal, somewhat smaller, and of the genus Atya, dis- 

 tinguished by having no nippers on the larger pairs of walking legs, but only simple 

 spine-like ends to them, and by several very remarkable and characteristic features of 

 structure. The genus is very widely spread, occurring in the West Indies, Philip- 

 pines, Samoa, and Mexico. After the village of San Domingo, which consists of a few 

 scattered thatched stone houses, had been passed, the road became very much worse 

 and the ponies soon became completely tired out, so much so that a retreat had to be 

 made on foot. Five hours had already been spent in the saddle and the place from 

 which the ascent of the mountain commences was still a very long way off A 

 Portuguese inhabitant of the valley said that it was impossible to ascend the mountain 

 in the rainy season, because of the falls of stones or stone avalanches which were common 

 and dangerous. It is evident that an excursion to the summit of San Antonio, from the 

 harbour of St. Iago, is possible only in three or four days ; a good supply of provisions 

 should be taken by any party attempting it. San Domingo valley, with its succession 

 of mountain ridges and peaks becoming bluer and bluer in the distance, is one of the 

 finest of mountain valleys, and the tropical vegetation with which it is clothed gives it 

 an especial charm. The sight of such a place is particularly delightful to a traveller 

 who has for weeks been trudging the arid hills and plains of St. Vincent, or one who has 

 just ascended to it from the almost equally sterile plains about the coast of St. Iago. 



