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CBU1SE OF B.M.S . CHALLENGEB . 
rough stony plateau, where thousands of sea-birds 
land for breeding during the season. 
On the whole, the climate of Ascension may be 
regarded as very healthy, as it is situated in the 
direct track of the south-east trade-wind, having a 
particularly dry soil — nothing like swamp or marsh; 
and from the absence of all vegetation there is 
nothing to taint the air or to produce impurity. 
Fever has occasionally been imported here from 
the pestiferous coast of Africa, but even that now 
appears to be a thing of the past. The coast being 
comparatively healthy, and the vessels not being kept 
so long on the station, we rarely hear of those dread- 
ful epidemics which formerly made such havoc. 
Ascension is famed for its excellent turtle, at one 
time considered the support of the island, the flesh 
being termed island beef. Large ponds are con- 
structed for keeping the fish. 
During the season, from December to June, men 
are employed along the sandy beach watching for the 
full-grown females to land for the purpose of laying 
their eggs. They crawl up the sandy beaches, and 
make a large hole by scooping the sand up with their 
flippers ; having deposited their eggs in it, and care- 
fully filled in the hole again, they prepare for their 
retreat to the water, but are intercepted by the 
watchers, who speedily turn them on their backs. At 
daylight they are taken to the inclosed ponds. Some 
of those captured weigh as much as seven cwt. They 
