62 
ST. HELENA. 
the hot, frothy lava scum obtained admittance into the shell, and, 
while cooling itself, so as to retain the form of an internal cast, 
burnt the shell, causing it to fall away as quicklime ; hut how a sea 
shell, if such it really was, got on to the top of this lofty volcanic 
pile has yet to he solved.* 
The ejection of lava appears to have occurred more in the form 
of bubbling up and overflowing, while the cinders were thrown 
to a considerable height. The former, in many places, is twisted 
into almost all imaginable tortuous shapes, by a fresh flow running 
over the half-consolidated one which preceded it, and pushing 
or curling up the frothy scum into the fibrous forms which the 
scoriae still retains. On the western side of the cone, low down in 
the valley adjoining New Ground, the thin flows of lava down the 
face of the cone, at an angle of 30°, are easily traced. 
Leaving High Knoll, and proceeding westward along the line of 
upheaving force, across the plains and ridges called New Ground, 
Rock Cottage, Friar’s Ridge, High Point, Horse Pasture, High 
Hill, and Bottleys, on this side of Manatee Bay, we see evidences of 
a disturbance in the strata at each point. The high sharp division 
between two ravines, called Friar’s Ridge, exhibits a striking 
illustration of shattering and squeezing up of very compact lavas, 
the lateral pressure having been so great as to cause a sort of 
columnar structure to appear, while the angle of inclination ol the 
lava-beds northwards is changed from 5 and 6 , to 10 and 12 . 
Much crumbling away of the rocks at this point has occuired, 
through the extreme narrowness of the ridge, and on its very crest 
there still remains a pile of stones about twelve or fourteen feet in 
height. Worn, weather-beaten, and lichen-covered, it has stood for 
many years until it has assumed, when viewed from a distance, a 
most strikingly -correct resemblance to a cloaked and hooded figure, 
giving rise to the following legendary story : — 
“The place where the Friar now stands was supposed once, to have 
been the site of a Roman Catholic Chapel, adjoining which was the 
residence of the officiating priest, a monk of the Franciscan order, 
who was considered as an example of Christian piety and humility, 
his life being passed in the performance of acts of charity and 
* I still have this specimen pasted away with others, and hope to get it carefully 
examined. 
