Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/140

 108 WEST AFRICA. the guinea-fowl. Snakes are unknown ; but turtles of gigantic size abound from December to May, when they leave the water to lay their eggs in the sand. Most of them weigh from four hundred and fifty to six hundred pounds, but have been found weighing as much as nine hundred pounds, but their flesh is less esteemed by epicures than that of the smaller West Indian variety. The fisheries were formerly very productive, yielding as many as two thousand five hundred in exceptional years, but the average take does not now exceed three hundred. During the spawning season no guns are fired nor lights kindled on the beach, to avoid scaring these timid chelonians. Large numbers of young turtles, as soon as hatched, are devoured by the sea-birds w^heeling incessantly overhead. The only inhabitants of Ascension are the soldiers, sailors, officials, and a few provision-dealers attached to the garrison. Politically the island is regarded as a man-of-war whose inhabitants are the crew. The governor is, like a naval captain, " master on board," allowing no person to land without the special permission of the Lords of the Admiralty. This military station was first established in 1815, in order to keep watch over Napoleon; but even after his death in 1821 the station was maintained, thanks to its position as a sentinel in the centre of the Atlantic highroad, and midway between the two continents. At Georgetown, the only group of habitations, passing steamers renew their supplies of coal and provisions, but can obtain water only in case of extreme urgency. Islands in the Gulf of Guinea. These four islands, although equally of volcanic origin, differ from the other South Atlantic groups, at least by their position in relatively shallow water near the African coast. In the Gulf of Guinea the depths are everywhere under 1,000 fathoms, falling on one side of Fernando-Po to less than 340 feet. Through the inclined plain on which they rest these islands form a natural dependence of Africa ; their craters are also disposed in a straight line which is continued on the mainland by the Kameroons volcano, so that the insular and continental masses obviously form a single system lying on the line of the same volcanic fault. Possibly St. Helena may belong to the same system, but it is so remote and separated by such deep waters from the continent, that it must be regarded as a world apart. The four islands running due south-west and north-east form also a distinct geographical group, whose members are disposed at regular intervals of about 120 miles one from the other. Politically they are divided amongst two European powers, the two inner islands, Sam-Thome and Principe, belonging to Portugal, the two outer, Annobon and Fernando-Po, forming Spanish possessions since 1778. Annobon. Annobon, properly Anno Bom, that is, " Good Year," was so named in 1471 by its Portuguese discoverers, Escobar and Santarem, because they sighted it on