TRISTAN D'ACUNHA. 
47 
supply of fresh water. The place has an aspect of utter desolation, which one of my 
companions has graphically described in the following words : — “ Ten or twelve poor-looking 
cottages, built of rough trachyte, low-roofed, and thatched with tussock grass, marked off 
separately or in twos and threes by low stone walls; one or two small patches of cultivation 
between the houses and the sea; a primitive cart, or box on wooden wheels, with a large- 
EDINBURGH, TRISTAN D’ACUNHA. 
boned quiet-looking bullock standing near; a flock of geese picking the scanty grass and 
cackling; a few woe-begone fowls sheltering from the wind under an old cart; near, a clump 
of furze, thin and starved by the cold, but still showing a few scanty yellow flowers ; a few 
timid children gazing out of the doorways—is all that greets the stranger as he passes 
through the settlement.” 
HOUSE-BUILDING AT TRISTAN D’ACUNHA (INACCESSIBLE ISLAND IN THE DISTANCE). 
In the absence of timber and mortar, the islanders resort to a primitive style of 
architecture, which recalls the cyclopean walls of our prehistoric ancestors. Selecting from 
amongst the numerous coarse-grained boulders which have rolled down from the cliffs such 
as are most suitable in size, they shape them with mason’s tools, and moving them along 
an inclined plane, composed haply of the mast of some shipwrecked vessel, they fit them into 
G 
