12 



CHARLES DARWIN 



the hazy atmosphere of this climate, is one of great interest; 

 if, indeed, a person, fresh from sea, and who has just 

 walked, for the first time, in a grove of cocoa-nut trees, can 

 be a judge of anything but his own happiness. The island 

 would generally be considered as very uninteresting; but to 

 anyone accustomed only to an English landscape, the novel 

 aspect of an utterly sterile land possesses a grandeur which 

 more vegetation might spoil. A single green leaf can 

 scarcely be discovered over wide tracts of the lava plains; 

 yet flocks of goats, together with a few cows, contrive to 

 exist. It rains very seldom, but during a short portion of 

 the year heavy torrents fall, and immediately afterwards a 

 light vegetation springs out of every crevice. This soon 

 withers ; and upon such naturally formed hay the animals 

 live. It had not now rained for an entire year. When the 

 island was discovered, the immediate neighbourhood of 

 Porto Praya was clothed with 'rees, 1 the reckless destruc- 

 tion of which has caused here, as at St. Helena, and at 

 some of the Canary islands, almost entire sterility. The 

 broad, flat-bottomed valley:, many of which serve during a 

 few days only in the season as water-courses, are clothed 

 with thickets of leafless bushes. Few living creatures inhabit 

 these valleys. The commonest bird is a kingfisher (Dacelo 

 Iagoensis), which tamely sits on the branches of the castor- 

 oil plant, and thence darts on grasshoppers and lizards. It 

 is brightly coloured, but not so beautiful as the European 

 species : in its flight, manners, and place of habitation, which 

 is generally in the driest valley, there is also a wide dif- 

 ference. 



One day, two of the officers and myself rode to Ribeira 

 Grande, a village a few miles eastward of Porto Praya. Un- 

 til we reached the valley of St. Martin, the country presented 

 its usual dull brown appearance; but here, a very small rill 

 of water produces a most refreshing margin of luxuriant 

 vegetation. In the course of an hour we arrived at Ribeira 

 Grande, and were surprised at the sight of a large ruined 

 fort and cathedral. This little town, before its harbour was 

 filled up, was the principal place in the island: it now pre- 



1 1 state this on the authority of Dr. E. Dieffenbach, in his German 

 translation of the first edition of this Journal. 



