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PORTER’S JOURNAL 
is a small spring of water: this a stranger might not be acquaint¬ 
ed with, or, if he had a knowledge of it, might not have strength 
to reach it; but if the stream in question existed constantly, where 
would be the necessity of leaving this cask of water along side 
of it? 
This island is mountainous (as are the whole group), and is 
covered with trees from 15 to 20 feet in length, scattered with 
considerable regularity, as to distance and appearance, on the 
sides of the hills, which all have evident marks of volcanic 
origin; but what seems remarkable is, that every tree on the 
island, at least all that could be approached by the boat’s crew on 
shore, and such as we coukl perceive by means of our perspectives, 
were dead and withered. This must have been occasioned by the 
prevalence of an excessive drought, which entirely deprived them 
of the necessary moisture ; and as this island is not of so great an 
elevation as many others, which has probably been the cause of 
its suffering more than the larger and higher ones, though they 
all seem more or less affected from the same cause; and as all 
the trees on the islands I have yet seen, appear much of the same 
size, not excepting those in the most flourishing state, it seems 
not improbable, that the drought has not only been recent, but 
that it has affected the whole at the same time ; and as the whole 
group is destitute of trees of a large size, it seems reasonable to 
believe, that their vegetation may be checked at different periods 
by very dry seasons, and to this cause may be owing their being 
deprived of streams of waters ; for although it seldom rains on 
shore, and never at sea here, yet the tops of the mountains are al¬ 
most constantly covered with thick clouds, great part of the mois¬ 
ture from which, instead of being soaked up by the light and 
spongy soil of the mountains, would find its way in running 
streams to the sea, were the islands sufficiently furnished with 
trees to condense more constantly the atmosphere, and interlace 
their roots to prevent its escape into the bowels of the mountains. 
These islands are all evidently of volcanic production ; every 
mountain and hill is the crater of an extinguished volcano ; and 
thousands of smaller fissures, which have burst from their sides, 
give them the most dreary, desolate, and inhospitable appearance 
