102 THE CONDOR Voi,. X 



plants and three birds are gone and others are reduced to very small numbers, and 

 the whole island seems threatened in the near future with absolute desolation — 

 doomed to become a barren rock. 



GuADALOUPE Island 



Guadaloupe Island, the northern end of which lies about 160 miles southwest 

 from San Antonio point, I^ower California, is about 20 miles long and 

 from 3 to 7 miles wide. It is of volcanic origin, and is traversed throughout its 

 entire length by a chain of mountains, the highest of which is some 4500 feet above 

 sea level. The western and northern sides of this range slope rapidly toward the 

 ocean, ending in many places in high perpendicular cliffs. Toward the south the 

 slope is more gradual and ends less abruptly. The southern part of the island, 

 which is lowest, is rocky and barren, and during May and June, 1906, was a sun- 

 burned waste with hardly a leaf of living verdure. 



At the northern end of the island extending along a narrow ridge, and in some 

 places down its perpendicular face is a fast decaying pine wood. No young trees 

 appear anywhere and the old ones are gradually falling, the ground being strewn 

 with decaying trunks. This end of the island is of about 3000 feet altitude. 

 Much of the time it is enveloped in heavy fog, and on such occasions a splendid 

 example of the power in these trees of gathering and condensing moisture is af- 

 forded. Under the pines water will be pouring in streamlets from the base of the 

 trunks, while the surrounding open country is hardly wet by the fog. Formerly 

 when the whole northwestern part of the island was covered with a dense pine 

 forest, springs must have been more numerous and conditions very different. Most 

 of the higher parts of the island are open, rocky table land, but near the very high- 

 est point, north of Mt. Augusta, is a large cypress wood, occupying an area of 

 nearly three square miles. The eastern edge of this large cypress grove ends ab- 

 ruptly at a ridge below which is another much lower table land. Upon this is a 

 second but very much smaller grove of cypress with several springs and pools of 

 water, more or less alkaline, near by. Here Brown and Marsden made their camp. 

 Among the cypresses of both groves there are numerous dried stumps of some 

 shrub now extinct in Guadaloupe. No young trees could be found in or about the 

 groves, and most of the old trees show the marks of the teeth of goats, and many 

 are dying. Far down the northwestern slope there is a large grove of cabbage 

 palms, and another smaller one near Steamer Point on the west shore. Among 

 the palms are a few fine oaks, from 30 to 65 feet in height, and under a cliff east 

 of the cabins several stunted ones that branch very low down like shrubs. 



The juniper is gone; numerous dried stumps told, however, where in the past 

 a grove of this tree had stood. 



The vegetation of the island in May and June consisted of wild oats, foxtailed 

 grass and cactus plants, and in the region of the old corrals, a species of Malva 

 grew in profusion. Other plants, with very few exceptions, were seen only here 

 and there clinging to the almost perpendicular cliffs. 



The climate of the island, in spring and early summer at least, is cold and 

 raw with much fog at the northern end. High winds, almost gales, blew from the 

 northwest much of the time, making collecting along the north ridge well nigh 

 impossible. On such days Brown and Marsden would resort to the large cypress 

 grove on the high table land and once inside this wood no matter how hard it blew 

 without, not a breath would be stirring, so perfect is the protection afforded by the 

 closely growing cypress trees. 



The domestic goat and cat turned loose upon the island many years ago, are 



