426 EAMBLES OP A NATUEALIST. [Oh. XXIV. 



and too many of the visitors are not content without maim- 

 ing a number in mere wantonness ; so that the poor birds 

 can hardly be said to dwell unmolested ; nevertheless, as 

 long at least as they have nests and eggs to look after, they 

 evince what I should characterize as boldness rather than 

 tameness. I should consider the Solan geese on the Bass 

 Eock as tamer than the " wide-awakes " of Ascension. 



Before leaving the island I visited the turtle-ponds, where 

 these animals are kept in store ; for Ascension, barren and 

 desolate as it is, has yet one product in which it is not 

 exceeded by any part of the world, viz., turtle. The sandy 

 bays of the island are visited by great numbers of these un- 

 wieldy and valuable reptUes, which, entirely marine and 

 oceanic in their habits, visit the shore solely for the deposi- 

 tion of their eggs, and are secured on these occasions by 

 being cut off from their retreat to the sea and turned over on 

 their backs, and then conveyed at leisure to the reservoirs 

 provided for their reception. The sandy shore adjoining 

 George Town, I was informed, is no longer so rich and 

 profitable a beach as it once was, the reason probably being 

 that turtle, like birds of passage, return again and again to 

 the same spot to deposit their eggs ; and on this beach, as 

 being most accessible, the greatest number of turtle have 

 been turned, so that but few visit it at present. No one but 

 the government authorities is allowed to interfere with this 

 source of emolument, and the turtle form a staple article of 

 food upon the island, being served out twice a week ; but 

 the animals are sent to persons in authority in England, and 

 are supplied to merchant ships at the rate of iG2 10s. each. 

 The season was just over when I visited Ascension, and the 

 turtle-ponds contained eighty-two animals. These ponds, 

 two in number, were on the sea-beach, each 50 or 60 feet 



