1836.] CHANGES IN THE VEGETATION. 489 
Longwood and Deadwood have undergone, as given in General 
Beatson’s account of the island, is extremely curious. Both 
plains, it is said, in former times were covered with wood, and 
were therefore called the Great Wood. So late as the year 
1716 there were many trees, but in 1724 the old trees had 
mostly fallen; and as goats and hogs had been suffered to range 
about, all the young trees had been killed. It appears also 
from the official records, that the trees were unexpectedly, some 
years afterwards, succeeded by a wire grass, which spread over the 
whole surface.* General Beatson adds that now this plain “ is 
covered with fine sward, and is become the finest piece of pas- 
ture on the island.” The extent of surface, probably covered 
by wood at a former period, is estimated at no less than two 
thousand acres; at the present day scarcely a single tree can be 
found there. It is also said that in 1709 there were quantities 
of dead trees in Sandy Bay ; this place is now so utterly desert, 
that nothing but so well attested an account could have made me 
believe that they could ever have grown there. The fact, that 
the goats and hogs destroyed all the young trees as they sprang 
up, and that in the course of time the old ones, which were safe 
from their attacks, perished from age, seems clearly made out. 
Goats were introduced in the year 1502; eighty-six years after- 
wards, in the time of Cavendish, it is known that they were ex- 
ceedingly numerous. More than a century afterwards, in 1731, 
when the evil was complete and irretrievable, an order was 
issued that all stray animals should be destroyed. It is very 
interesting thus to find, that the arrival of animals at St. Helena 
in 1501, did not change the whole aspect of the island, until a 
period of two hundred and twenty years had elapsed: for the 
goats were introduced in 1502, and in 1724 it is said ‘ the old 
trees had mostly fallen.” There can be little doubt that this 
great change in the vegetation affected not only the Jand-shells, 
causing eight species to become extinct, but likewise a multitude 
of insects. 
St. Helena, situated so remote from any continent, in the 
midst of a great ocean, and possessing a unique Flora, excites 
our curiosity. The eight land-shells, though now extinct, and 
one living Succinea, are peculiar species found nowhere else, 
* Beatson’s St. Helena. Introductory chapter, p. 4. 
