I Can Hardly Doubt That These Rats
(Like The Common Mouse, Which Has Also Run Wild) Have
Been Imported, And, As At The Galapagos, Have Varied From
The Effect Of The New Conditions To Which They Have Been
Exposed:
Hence the variety on the summit of the island
differs from that on the coast.
Of native birds there are
none; but the guinea-fowl, imported from the Cape de
Verd Islands, is abundant, and the common fowl has likewise
run wild. Some cats, which were originally turned out
to destroy the rats and mice, have increased, so as to become
a great plague. The island is entirely without trees,
in which, and in every other respect, it is very far inferior
to St. Helena.
One of my excursions took me towards the S. W. extremity
of the island. The day was clear and hot, and I saw the
island, not smiling with beauty, but staring with naked
hideousness. The lava streams are covered with hummocks, and
are rugged to a degree which, geologically speaking, is not
of easy explanation. The intervening spaces are concealed
with layers of pumice, ashes and volcanic tuff. Whilst passing
this end of the island at sea, I could not imagine what
the white patches were with which the whole plain was
mottled; I now found that they were seafowl, sleeping in such
full confidence, that even in midday a man could walk up
and seize hold of them. These birds were the only living
creatures I saw during the whole day.
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