38 
FROM BERMUDAS TO CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 
The harbour of Porto Grande is occasionally crowded with shipping. During our stay 
there arrived a transport from home with troops for the Ashantee war, a steamer full of 
emigrants for South America, and another with even a greater number returning from 
that quarter, having failed to find the desired Eldorado. The island of St. Antonio 
rises just opposite to a height of 7400 feet; .it is not less rugged than St. Vincent, but, 
possessing a more fertile soil, supplies its neighbour with fruits and vegetables. We left 
MOUNT WASHINGTON, PORTO GRANDE. 
this port on the 5th of August for St. Jago, the largest of the Cape de Verde Islands, and the 
seat of Government. In the course of the 6th, as we were sailing through the sea 
enclosed by these islands, the high peaks of Fogo were for a short time visible above the 
clouds to the southward ; and running down during the night along the east coast of St. Jago, 
we entered, early on the morning of the 7th, the narrow inlet which forms the harbour of 
Porto Praya. 
ST. JAGO. 
As we surveyed the basalt cliffs between which we lay at anchor, we had no difficulty in 
identifying the white stratum which attracted the attention of Mr., now Doctor, Darwin on the 
occasion of his visit to this port in H.M.S. “ Beagle ” in January, 1832. Although over forty feet 
above the present level of the sea, this stratum is composed of shells and other calcareous 
matter, which must have been deposited at a time when the volcanic foundation on which it 
rests was under water. Subsequently covered by a new flow of lava, and partly converted 
into limestone by heat, it now forms part of the cliffs which extend for miles along the 
sea-shore in the vicinity of Porto Praya. Far inland rises the steep cone of Mount St. Antonio, 
probably marking the site of the great volcano whence flowed the vast streams of lava 
which now form the gentle slopes of St. Jago. Geology has made us familiar with the gradual 
transformation of the surface of our planet during the past—a process still going on_and, as 
a consequence, we are perhaps inclined to underrate the length of time which, geologically 
