THE KING OF TRISTAN D'ACUNHA. 399 



at least, not without enclosures, of which I have 

 none. It is rather windy, but no severe gales as yet. 

 In the winter and spring it rains often, rendering it 

 very disagreeable to us, who have but a sorry Jaa$k- 

 straw's hut, thatched with coarse grass, without floor, 

 &c. But we have weeks together as fine weather as 

 summer, and vegetation goes on finely through the 

 year. All the hardy kinds of kitchen-garden stuff 

 flourish better in winter than summer, as in the latter 

 they are apt to run for seed, such as cabbage, French, 

 Lapland, and round turnips, beet, carrots, parsnips, 

 IHMSC, raddish, lettuce, onion, parsley, &c. Potatoes 

 suit the soil, which is a light one, and composed, for 

 the most part, of vegetable mould. A stream of 

 water, which might vie with many celebrated streams. 

 There are three constant streams on this north side of 

 the island. The land is covered with wood quite up 

 to the mountains, but of a creeping kind of shrub, 

 many of the size of an apple-tree. Ships may procure 

 what wood and water they may want for all culinary 

 purposes. Of land fit for cultivation, I think there 

 are 300 or 400 acres on this side, including a fine 

 meadow of about 12 or 15 acres ; on this cattle may 

 feed the year round. I have a small flock of geese, 

 which give me no trouble to feed, as they find 

 abundance of green herbage throughout the year ; 

 and as I do not mean to kill any of them, except, 

 perhaps, some spare ganders, until I have fifty breed- 

 ing geese, I may expect in a little time to have a good 



