THE TKOPICAL ZONE. 259 



neiro; and with regret we look back, as we spread our 

 sails, on all its green islands, and watch the wooded hills 

 along the coast, becoming less and less distinct, till at last 

 they die away from our sight. 



And now we unfold the map, and try to turn our thoughts 

 to what is to be done next, and begin to reflect that after 

 all, when we reach St. Helena, we shall not be able to gain 

 any very satisfactory knowledge as to its natural productions, 

 since from its being a regular place of call for ships on their 

 way to and from the East Indies, so much of this little 

 island is now brought into a cultivated state for the sake of 

 supplying their wants, that many of the indigenous plants 

 are beginning to disappear altogether ; a result which might 

 be expected in so small an island, no more than thirty miles 

 long and twenty-four in breadth. Accounts written long 

 ago are therefore the more valuable; such, for example, as 

 one we find in the relation of a voyage undertaken in Queen 

 Elizabeth's time by Captain Cavendish, from which we learn 

 that "there are Pig-trees which bear fruit continually and 

 very plentifully ; for on every tree you may see blossoms, 

 green figs, and ripe figs all at once, and it is so all the year 

 long. The reason is, that the island standeth so near the 

 sun. There is also great store of Lemon-trees, Orange- 



