mense size and will weigh as much as five hundred pounds. The method adopted at St. Helena of salting fish is simply that of dipping it in the sea, and allowing it to dry in the sun. This is repeated as often as is considered necessary to preserve it.

The

The anchorage off James Town, the only one at St. Helena, being on the lee-side of the island, is well sheltered, and of easy access. surf sometimes is very high, so that no boats can land for several days together. These surfs are most prevalent in the months of January and February, and many lives have been lost in consequence of boats being upset by them. During this time the weather is fine, the wind is light, and there appears to be no obvious cause to produce so extraordinary a phenomenon as these surfs present. They occurred twice during our stay here in the Chanticleer, and have been known to wash persons off the wharf. The spray commonly rises to the height of fifty or sixty feet, produced by a wave from the sea, which at the time appears to be in a perfectly quiescent state. Captain Johnson, the astronomer at St. Helena, has

paid very great attention to the tides there, and has adopted a most convenient and accurate method of observing them. The weak state of the tides and the heavy swells which prevail, render it a matter of some difficulty to obtain any correct results from his observations, and anomalies of every kind make them useless.

Soon after our arrival, Captain Foster not finding James Town a suitable place for conducting his experiments, the Chanticleer was anchored off Lemon Valley, a little to the westward. Here he obtained the use of the guardroom for the pendulum experiments; and the young gentlemen of the Chanticleer were located on the hills in tents, employed in making magnetic observations.

His Majesty's sloop Espoir was stationed at St. Helena while we were there, and his Majesty's ship Eden, under the command of Captain W. F. W. Owen, arrived from Fernando

Po; the Hecla also arrived from the coast of Africa. The Eden had lately suffered severely, having lost a hundred men from the effects of fever. The Hecla had also lost her captain, Commander T. Boteler, and so many of her

MORTALITY ON BOARD THE HECLA. 381

officers and crew that she was almost unmanned. A more wretched spectacle could not be imagined than this ship presented on her arrival at St. Helena. She was literally a floating

sepulchre from the dreadful effects of the Afri

can clime.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Sail for Ascension in company with the Eden.

Anchor

off George Town.-Character of the Island.-Establishment of George Town.-The Green Mountain and the Devil's Riding Ground. - Produce of the Island.- Dampier's Springs. Turtle, their habits.-Method of taking them.-Male Turtle never obtained.-Insects.

ON 10th of February we left St. Helena, and after a delightful passage of four days we arrived at Ascension on the 14th February, in company with his Majesty's ship Eden. The scene from the anchorage has a barren aspect although warmed by the light colour of the sand, but it is by no means so repulsive in the eye of a visiter as the wild and rugged rocks of St. Helena. Ascension is in general a much lower island, interspersed with broken ridges of lava and scattered hills separated by extensive plains. St. Helena, as we have seen, is one towering mass of solid rock.

SCENERY OF ASCENSION.

383

Situated nearly in the middle of the vast Atlantic, Ascension is about twenty miles in circumference, being nine miles in length from east to west, and about five or six from north to south. The surface of the island consists of ridges of naked rock, hills of cinders, and plains of ashes, dust, and lava. The general contour of the hills, and the blending of their different colours, impart a soft and pleasing effect on the mind of the spectator: the blackness of one hill is relieved by the ash-grey tinge of another, and the brick-burnt soil of one cone is contrasted with the pumice, or brown lava, of an adjacent or an opposite one. By this variety and alternation of colour, the monotony which would otherwise prevail is broken, and the scenery in some parts assumes a wild and picturesque character; and though not sublime in barrenness, it may be regarded as an awful wilderness amid the solitude of the ocean.

On the southern or lee-side of the island is the garrison establishment, dignified by the name of George Town, consisting of a small square formed by fifteen or twenty wooden houses. Besides these, contiguous to them, is the government store, a substantial stone build