Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/125

TBISTAM DA CUNHA. 97 also figured on the charts about ten degrees to the west of Saint Matthew, although no record existed of its discovery. This name may have possibly gone adrift on the high seas through confusion with the land of Santa-Cruz, the first Portuguese appellation of the Brazilian coast. G0N9AL0 Alvarez, or Gough. In the Austral Atlantic, the remotest island that may still be regarded as belonging to the African waters, is Goncalo Alvarez, so named from the pilot who discovered it early in the sixteenth century. This name, in its contracted form written / de g° Alvarez, became transformed to Diego Alvarez ; and when Gough rediscovered it in 1713, it became also known by his name. It is a craggy mass 4,350 feet high, and about 18 miles round, on the north and east fringed by three rocky islets, one of which takes the name of Church Rock, from its resemblance to a lofty nave flanked by its tower. A few sheltered creeks afford a landing on the large island, where settlers might be attracted by some fertile valleys, slopes densely clothed with brushwood, and waters well stocked with fish. But the island has only temporarily been visited by some American seal-fishers, who have reclaimed no land, living during their sojourn on fish and on birds which they attracted at night by large fires kindled on the headlands, Tristam da Cunha. About 240 miles to the north-west of Gough lies another rocky group on the highway between the Cape and the La Plata estuary, about 1,800 miles from the former and 2,400 from the latter. This is the Tristam da Cunha archipelago, so named from a navigator, " whose name," sings Camoens, " shall never extinguished be in the Austral isles washed by the Austral sea." Since its discovery in 1506 the group has been frequently visited by navigators, for it lies south of the zone of regular south-east winds, where vessels fall in with the strong western breezes, which enable them more easily to double the Cape of Good Hope. The large island is dominated by a regular snow-clad cone, rising to a height of from 8,000 to 8,500 feet, and visible at a distance of over 90 miles. Inaccessible, lying about 20 miles to the south-west of Tristam, takes its name from the steep cliffs, which can be approached only through some narrow ravines, and which form the pedestal of a rugged plateau often veiled by the clouds. Nightingale, 12 miles south-east of Inaccessible, is little more than a twin-peaked rock encircled by islets and reefs. These volcanic islands have altogether an area of over 20,000 acres, the principal island comprising over three-quarters of the whole extent. They are composed entirely of lavas, either compact or broken into innumerable frag- ments, or else reduced to a rich blackish mould. The highest peak in Tristam, which has been several times ascended, terminates, like the volcanic cones in the other islands, in a crater now flooded by a blue lake. Towards the north-west the lava-streams have acquired the appearance of a vast moraine descending down to