wild, as celery, cresses, &c., and many other esculent plants, the proper names of which were not known to the settlers, but their palatable taste and valuable anti-scorbutic properties were abundantly ascertained by them. Among others is one which they called the tea-plant, growing close to the ground, and producing a berry of the size of a large pea, white with a tinge of rose-colour, and of exquisite flavour. A decoction of its leaves is a good substitute for tea, whence its name. It is very abundant. No trees grow on the island, but wood for building was obtained tolerably easily from the adjoining Straits of Magellan. For fuel, besides peat and turf, which are abundant in many places, and may be procured dry out of the penguins' holes, three kinds of bushes are found, called fachinal, matajo, and gruillera. The first of these grows straight, from two to five feet high, and the stem, in proportion to the height, is from half an inch to one inch and a half in diameter: small woods of this are found in all the valleys, and form good cover; it bears no fruit. The second is more abundant in the southern than in the northern part of the island; its trunk is nearly the thickness of a man's arm, very crooked, never higher than three feet, and bears no fruit. The gruillera is the smallest of the three, growing close to the ground, and abundant all over the island; being easily ignited, it was chiefly used as fuel when the people were away from the settlement, and to light the peat fires in the houses. It bears a small dark red berry of the size of a large pea, of an insipid taste. Herds of wild horned cattle exist on the island, sufficient to maintain a great many settlers; and wild hogs are abundant in the northern peninsula. Wild horses are also found there of small size, but very hardy, which, when broken in, as some were without difficulty, were found of great service to the settlement. Rabbits are in great numbers, of a large size and fine fur. Foxes, too, are found, but differing considerably from those of Europe, having a thick head and coarse fur; they live chiefly on geese and other fowl, which they catch at night when asleep. Game is extremely common, especially wild geese and ducks; of the former two kinds were distinguished, the lowland or kelp-geese, and the upland geese; the latter were much superior in flavour, the former being of a fishy taste, living chiefly on muscles, shrimps, and kelp. Both were very tame, and the upland geese were easily domesticated. They are finest eating in autumn, being then plump, in consequence of the abundance at that season of tea-berries, of which they are very fond; the rest of the year they live on the short grass. They have a white neck and breast, with the rest of the body speckled of a fine brown marbled colour. The lowland gander is quite white, and the goose dark, with a speckled breast. Of ducks there are several kinds. The loggerheaded are the largest, and almost of the size of the geese; their flesh is tough and fishy; they cannot fly, and when cut off from the water are easily caught. The next size is also of inferior quality, tough and fishy; but the smaller kinds, which are not larger than young pigeons, are deliciously good, and are found in large flocks along the rivulets and fresh water ponds. Snipes are found so tame that they were often killed by throwing ramroads at them. In addition to these, a great variety of sea birds frequent the shores, of which the most valuable to sailors and settlers, from the quantity of eggs they deposit, are the gulls and penguins. These birds have their fixed rookeries, to which they resort in numerous flocks every spring; the gulls generally in green places near the shore, or on the small islands in the bay; the penguins chiefly along the steep rocky shores of the sea. The eggs of both are eatable even with relish, after long confinement on board ship, the penguin's being, however, the best, and less strong than those of the gull. So numerous are these eggs, that on one occasion eight men gathered 60,000 in four or five days, and could easily have doubled that number had they stopped a few days longer. Both gulls and penguins will lay six or eight each, if removed, otherwise they only lay two and hatch them. The gulls come first to their hatching places, the penguins a little later. Fish abounds in all the bays and inlets, especially in spring, when they come to spawn at the mouths of the fresh water rivulets. They generally enter and retire twice every day, at half-flood and half-ebb, and are in such numbers that ten or twelve men could always catch and salt about sixty tons in less than a month. They were usually caught by a sweepingnet, but they also took the hook, being of a kind between the mullet and salmon. Their flavour was excellent, and when salted, they were considered superior to the cod. Many shiploads might be procured annually. Of shell-fish there are only muscles and clams ; they are very abundant, and easily gathered on the beach at low water. Seals are found on the island, or rather on the rocks close to it, and hair-seals (sea lions and elephants) abound along its shores. Many black whales have been also caught in its neighbourhood; in consequence of which the island has of late years been much resorted to by fishing vessels, English, American, and French. Of these, eighty-nine touched at it between 1826 and 1831. East Falkland Island is singularly cut into by the sea, forming various good harbours of easy access for vessels of almost any burthen. A commandant with a few marines and a small vessel manned from the South American squadron should be placed at these (to us particularly) valuable islands. LOCALITY AREA-HISTORY-PHYSICAL ASPECT, CLIMATE, ST. Helena Island, celebrated as the prison and grave of the most extraordinary human being that ever tenanted this earth, is situate in the Southern Atlantic, within the limit of the south east trade winds; in latitude 15° 15' south, longitude 5° 49′ 45′′ west, 1200 miles from the coast of Africa, 2,000 from that of America, and 600 from the Island of Ascension: its area being 30,300 acres, its extreme length being 10 miles, its breadth 63, and its circumference about 28 miles. HISTORY.-St. Helena was discovered by the Portuguese navigator, Juan De Nova Castella, on core, in |