ful residence,
at least for any lengthened period, unless one happened to have a vast
amount of resources within oneself. I thought it was about the last
place I would choose in which to settle; but soon had occasion to change
my mind, as a view and slight inspection of the island of Ascension made
me regard Saint Helena as a perfect paradise in comparison.

Ascension might well be compared to a Brobdignag coal-fire suddenly put
out. All is black, or reddish-brown; only one spot of green is seen on
the island, and this is distinguished as the Green Mountain. On walking
inland, large bits of rock, that apparently weigh 100 pounds, may be
kicked along like footballs; they are really but like cinders. The
curiosities of the island are gannet and wide-awake fairs, so called
from the enormous swarms of these two birds--a species of gull that
there build and reside. The whole ground is covered with the eggs and
guano of these birds, while they themselves fly around the heads of the
visitor in thousands, uttering threatening cries. I found the
wide-awakes anything but correctly named, as I knocked over two or three
with my stick, and could have done so to many more had I wished. The
great thing at Ascension is turtle; swarms are there found, and the
commonest sailor has more than he can eat. Two large ponds, of about
100 feet square, are crammed with the fish, lying two and three deep;
the turtle are regularly fed and looked after, ships being supplied with
them when required. There are two or three lookout stations in the
island, where men watch for the turtle to crawl on shore. Immediately
that one is seen, a party is sent out who turn the unwieldy gentleman on
his back, where he reposes, flapping his finny legs about until a cart
takes him to the prison pond. We had about a dozen sent on board, and
in a week were surfeited with turtle soup, turtle-steaks, turtle-curry,
and turtles' eggs; a plain bit of salt junk was for a change quite a
treat. As we passed the line, I witnessed a strange collection of
waterspouts that were gathered on the horizon near sunset; there were
about seven of them nearly close together and moving with different
velocities; they had the appearance of columns supporting the dark
clouds of heaven. Sometimes they would seem to disperse, and then
again, gathering solidity, stalk about like ocean genii.

Our voyage was unmarked by sport. We had a strange death occur on board
from chlorofor