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102 THE CONDO? VOL. X plants and three birds are gone and others are reduced to very small numbers, and the whole island seems threatened in the near future with absolute desolation-- doomed to become a barren rock. C-UADALOUPE ISLAND Guadaloupe Island, the northern end of which lies about 160 miles southwest from San Antonio point, Lower' California, is about 20 miles long and from 3 to 7 miles wide. It is of volcanic origin, and is traversed throughout its entire length by a chain of mountains, the highest of which is some 4500 feet above sea level. The western and northern sides of this range slope rapidly toward the ocean, ending in many places in high perpendicular cliffs. Toward the south the slope is more gradual and ends less abruptly. The southern part of the island, which is lowest, is rocky and barren, and during May and June, 1906, was a sun- burned waste with hardly a leaf of living verdure. At the northern end of the island extending along a narrow ridge, and in some places down its perpendicular face is a fast decaying pine wood. No young trees appear anywhere and the old ones are gradually falling, the ground being strewn with decaying trunks. This end of the island is of about 3000 feet altitude. Much of the time it is enveloped in heavy fog, and on such occasions a splendid example of the power in these trees of gathering and condensing moisture is af- forded. Under the pines water will be pouring in streamlets from the base of the trunks, while the surrounding open country is hardly wet by the fog. Formerly when the whole northwestern part of the island was covered with a dense pine forest, springs must have been more numerous and conditions very different. Most of the higher parts of the island are open, rocky table land, but near the very high- est point, north of Mt. Augusta, is a large cypress wood, occupying an area of nearly three square miles. The eastern edge of this large cypress grove ends ab- ruptly at a ridge below which is another much lower table land. Upon this is a second but very much smaller grove of cypress with several springs and pools of water, more or less alkaline, near by. Here Brown and Marsden made their camp. Among the cypresses of both groves there are numerous dried stumps of some shrub now extinct in Guadaloupe. No young trees could be found in or about the groves, and most of the old trees show the marks of the teeth of goats, and many are dying. Far down the northwestern slope there is a large grove of cabbage palms, and another s?naller one near Steamer Point on the west shore. Among the palms are a few fine oaks, from 30 to 65 feet in height, and under a cliff east of the cabins several stunted ones that branch very low down like shrubs. The juniper is gone; numerous dried stumps told, however, where in the past a grove of this tree had stood. The vegetation of the island in May and June consisted of wild oats, foxtailed grass and cactus plants, and in the region of the old corrals, a species of ?/Zalva grew in profusion. Other plants, with very few exceptions, were seen only here and there clinging to the almost perpendicular cliffs. The climate of the island, in spring and early summer at least, is cold and raw with much fog at the northern end. High winds, almost gales, blew from the northwest much of the time, making collecting along the north ridge well nigh impossible. On such days Brown and Marsden would resort to the large cypress grove on the high table land and once inside this wood no matter how hard it blew without, not a breath would be stirring, so perfect is the protection afforded by the closely growing cypress trees. The domestic goat and cat turned loose upon the island many years ago, are