were introduced in the year 1502; eighty-six years afterwards, in the
time of Cavendish, it is known that they were exceedingly numerous.
More than a century afterwards, in 1731, when the evil was complete and
irretrievable, an order was issued that all stray animals should be
destroyed. It is very interesting thus to find, that the arrival of
animals at St. Helena in 1501, did not change the whole aspect of the
island, until a period of two hundred and twenty years had elapsed: for
the goats were introduced in 1502, and in 1724 it is said "the old
trees had mostly fallen." There can be little doubt that this great
change in the vegetation affected not only the land-shells, causing
eight species to become extinct, but likewise a multitude of insects.
St. Helena, situated so remote from any continent, in the midst of a
great ocean, and possessing a unique Flora, excites our curiosity. The
eight land-shells, though now extinct, and one living Succinea, are
peculiar species found nowhere else. Mr. Cuming, however, informs me
that an English Helix is common here, its eggs no doubt having been
imported in some of the many introduced plants. Mr. Cuming collected
on the coast sixteen species of sea-shells, of which seven, as far as
he knows, are confined to this island. Birds and insects, [4] as might
have been expected, are very few in number; indeed I believe all the
birds have been introduced within late years. Partridges and pheasants
are tolerably abundant; the island is much too English not to be
subject to strict game-laws. I was told of a more unjust sacrifice to
such ordinances than I ever heard of even in England. The poor people
formerly used to burn a plant, which grows on the coast-rocks, and
export the soda from its ashes; but a peremptory order came out
prohibiting this practice, and giving as a reason that the partridges
would have nowhere to build.
In my walks I passed more than once over the grassy plain bounded by
deep valleys, on which Longwood stands. Viewed from a short distance,
it appears like a respectable gentleman's country-seat. In front there
are a few cultivated fields, and beyond them the smooth hill of
coloured rocks called the Flagstaff, and the rugged square black mass
of the Barn. On the whole the view was rather bleak and uninteresting.
The only inconvenience I suffered during my walks was from the
impetuous winds. One day I noticed a curious circumstance; standing on
the edge of a plain, terminated by a great cliff of about a thousand
feet in depth, I saw at the distance of a few yards right to windward,
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