ST. HELENA 71 



very high merit, and having a good executive Council, he 

 carried through works of improvement which could not 

 otherwise have been done. An observatory was built at 

 Ladder Hill, the site of the present officers' mess, and 

 furnished with instruments at a great expense ; but when 

 the island was transferred to the Crown the instruments were 

 taken to Canada. The inclined plane from Jamestown 

 to Ladder Hill was built. Governor Dallas was fully alive 

 to the great cost and labour of conveying <yoods and produce 

 from town to country, or from country to town ; he there- 

 fore, to lessen the expense of conveying manure up, and 

 of bringing produce down, caused this plane to be erected. 

 It was carried out under the personal supervision of Lieut. 

 G. W. Mellis, an artillery officer, and consisted of a ladder 

 900 feet in length with about 700 steps, placed against the 

 face of the cliffs between Jamestown and Ladder Hill, at an 

 angle of 39° or 40°. On either side was a tramway, upon 

 which wagons (worked by machinery and ropes at the top) 

 travelled up and down. This train service of St. Helena 

 was only for the conveyance of goods, but in these days of 

 engineering power it could have been made also to carry 

 passengers. 



Many years since it had fallen into disuse and bad repair, 

 and was ultimately demolished in the days of adversity 

 which came on the island. This is greatly to be regretted, 

 for during the late South African war it would have been 

 of inestimable value. A railway there to convey stores 

 up a perpendicular height of 600 feet, a storage depot at the 

 summit, on the direct way to Broadbottom Camp, would 

 have saved much money, labour and health ; for the cost of 

 transport here for the past three years has been very great, 

 as also has been the strain on the transport officers. A 

 similar railway might have been easily constructed also 

 from Rupert's Valley direct to Deadwood Camp, but nothing 

 in the way of improvement in traffic or roads has been done, 

 although several thousand men were here, eager to labour, 

 and so to relieve the monotony of camp life. The roads 

 in use are inconvenient, and the incline much greater than 

 would be the case if the roads were replanned by modern 

 engineers. 



In 1829 we read that the mina bird, much in estimation 



U 



