MV ISLANDS. 19 



Up to the moiiicnt of the arrival of man in the archipel- 

 ago, tliu whole population, animal and vegetahle, consistecl 

 entirely of these waifs and strays, blown out to sea from 

 Europe or Africa, and modified more or less on the spot 

 in accordance with the varying needs of their new home. 

 But the advent of the obtrusive human species spoilt the 

 game at once for an independent observer. Man 

 iiumediately introduced oranges, bananas, sweet potatoes, 

 grapes, plums, almonds, and many other trees or shrubs, 

 ill which, for selfish reasons, he was personally 

 interested. At the same time he quite unconsciously 

 and unintentionally stocked the islands with a line 

 vigorous crop of European weeds, so that the number of 

 kinds of flowering plants included in the modern flora 

 jof my little archipelago exceeds, I think, by fully one- 

 ihalf that which I remember before the date of. the 

 j Portuguese occupation. In the same way, besides his 

 (loniestic animals, this spoil-sport colonist man brought 

 [in his train accidentally rabbits, weasels, mice, and rats, 

 wiiich now abound in many parts of the group, so that 

 jtlie islands have now in ellect a wild mammalian fauna. 

 IWhat is more odd, a small lizard has also got about in 

 [the walls — not as you would imagine, a native-born 

 Portuguese subject, but of a kind found only in IMadeira 

 |iuk1 Teneriffe, and, as far as I could make out at the 

 time, it seemed to me to come over with cuttings of 

 Madeira vines for planting at St. Michael's. It was about 

 [he same time, I imagine, that eels and gold-fish first got 

 [oose from glass globes into the ponds and water-courses. 

 I have forgotten to mention, what you will no doubt 

 [ourself long since have inferred, that my archipelago is 



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