294 ISLAND LIFE 



the most part by enormous precipices, and rising to a 

 height of 2,700 feet above the sea-level. An ancient 

 crater, about four miles across, is open on the south side, 

 and its northern rim forms the highest and central ridge of 

 the island. Many other hills and peaks, however, are more 

 than two thousand feet high, and a considerable portion of 

 the surface consists of a rugged plateau, having an 

 elevation of about fifteen hundred to two thousand feet. 

 Everything indicates that St. Helena is an isolated volcanic 

 mass built up from the depths of the ocean. Mr. 

 Wollaston remarks : " There are the strongest reasons for 

 believing that the area of St. Helena was never very much 

 larger than it is at present — the comparatively shallow 

 sea-soundings within about a mile and a half from the 

 shore revealing an abruptly defined ledge, beyond which no 

 bottom is reached at a depth of 250 fathoms ; so that the 

 original basaltic mass, which was gradually piled up by 

 means of successive eruptions from beneath the ocean, 

 w^ould appear to have its limit definitely marked out by 

 this suddenly-terminating submarine cliff — the space 

 between it and the existing coast-line being reasonably 

 referred to that slow process of disintegration by which the 

 island has been reduced, through the eroding action of the 

 elements, to its present dimensions." If we add to this 

 that between the island and the coast of Africa, in a 

 south-easterly direction, is a profound oceanic gulf known 

 to reach a depth of 2,860 fathoms, or 17,160 feet, while an 

 equally deep, or perhaps deeper, ocean, extends to the west 

 and south-west, we shall be satisfied that St. Helena is a 

 true oceanic island, and that it owes none of its 

 peculiarities to a former union with any continent or other 

 distant land. 



Change Efected hy Ewopean Occupation. — When first 

 discovered, in the year 1501, St. Helena was densely 

 covered with a luxuriant forest vegetation, the trees over- 

 hanging the seaward precipices and covering every part of 

 the surface with an evergreen mantle. This indigenous 

 vegetation has been almost wholly destroyed ; and although 

 an immense number of foreign plants have been introduced, 

 and have more or less completely established themselves, 



