It Is Very Interesting Thus To Find, That The
Arrival Of Animals At St. Helena In 1501, Did Not Change The
Whole Aspect Of The Island, Until A Period Of Two Hundred
And Twenty Years Had Elapsed:
For the goats were introduced
in 1502, and in 1724 it is said "the old trees had mostly
fallen." There can be little doubt that this great change in
the vegetation affected not only the land-shells, causing eight
species to become extinct, but likewise a multitude of insects.
St. Helena, situated so remote from any continent, in the
midst of a great ocean, and possessing a unique Flora, excites
our curiosity. The eight land-shells, though now extinct,
and one living Succinea, are peculiar species found nowhere
else. Mr. Cuming, however, informs me that an English
Helix is common here, its eggs no doubt having been imported
in some of the many introduced plants. Mr. Cuming
collected on the coast sixteen species of sea-shells, of which
seven, as far as he knows, are confined to this island. Birds
and insects, [4] as might have been expected, are very few in
number; indeed I believe all the birds have been introduced
within late years. Partridges and pheasants are tolerably
abundant; the island is much too English not to be subject
to strict game-laws. I was told of a more unjust sacrifice to
such ordinances than I ever heard of even in England. The
poor people formerly used to burn a plant, which grows on the
coast-rocks, and export the soda from its ashes; but a
peremptory order came out prohibiting this practice, and giving
as a reason that the partridges would have nowhere to build.
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