392 
ST. HELENA. 
yards or more into the coal-yard, and dashing with the utmost fury 
against the cliff carried away a balcony, which but half-an-hour 
before had been vacated by thirty or forty spectators. The whole 
scene is described as one of wild and awful grandeur; the sea and 
the shore being everywhere covered with broken boats, spars, 
casks, timber, all floating in one huge boiling surge. The o-lacis 
and the lines of Jamestown were impassable through wreck of every 
description scattered about: coal-yards, wharf, and sea walls bat- 
teries and cannon, were swept down. At six o’clock in the evening 
no abatement occurred, and two other ships, the Quatro de Marco 
winch hitherto, held by four anchors, had withstood the fury 
of the sea and the Julia, a Brazilian, were dashed to pieces on 
the wes rocks The destruction of these ships was as instantaneous 
as a child would crush a fragile toy. The former vessel was seen 
with masts standing, only a moment before she floated a thou- 
sand pieces in the surge. The latter was rolled over just as if 
the waves were playing at football or cricket with her, and eventually 
lodged high up on the west rocks against the cliffs of Ladder Hill 
At Eupert s Valley the sea rolled inland a distance of 21G feet’ 
Eleven ot the destroyed ships were condemned slavers, and of no 
great value ; therefore the estimated damage done did not exceed 
10,000/. This oceanic phenomenon occurs^with greater Le and 
moie lequency at the Island of Ascension, in lat. 7° 58-^ S and 
long. 14" m- w where communication between ship/ ani th! 
shore is completely stopped for a week or more at a time. 
Through the kindness of Captain Wilmshnrst, B.N., I was able 
during t ie year commencing September, 1867, to make a com- 
parison ol the time and force of the rollers at each Island* It 
appears that they set in at Ascension, upon the average, one to 
seven days sooner than they do at St. Helena, and that their course 
is south or south-easterly from the Equator, breaking against the 
northern shores only of both Islands. Although they happen at any 
period of the year, they appear chiefly in the months of December 
to March, usually occurring with greatest force in February, f 
* Appendix, p. 404. 
T Extracts from 3£SS. Island Records : 
tas intirel, torl * g „. ‘f a VS 
