When the island was discovered, the immediate neighbourhood of Porto Praya was clothed with trees (1/1.

I state this on the authority of Dr.E.
Dieffenbach, in his German translation of the first edition of this Journal.), the reckless destruction of which has caused here, as at St.Helena, and at some of the Canary islands, almost entire sterility.

The broad, flat-bottomed valleys, many of which serve during a few days only in the season as watercourses, are clothed with thickets of leafless bushes.

Few living creatures inhabit these valleys.

The commonest bird is a kingfisher (Dacelo Iagoensis), which tamely sits on the branches of the castor-oil plant, and thence darts on grasshoppers and lizards.