Book contents
- Frontmatter
- INTRODUCTION
- Contents
- CHAPTER I WHY WE WENT
- CHAPTER II THE VOYAGE
- CHAPTER III ST. HELENA
- CHAPTER IV WHAT ASCENSION LOOKED LIKE
- CHAPTER V ASCENSION PAST AND PRESENT
- CHAPTER VI ROUND ABOUT GARRISON
- CHAPTER VII A NIGHT ON THE CLINKER
- CHAPTER VIII CHANGE AND CHECK
- CHAPTER IX MARS BAY
- CHAPTER X A SUNDAY SCENE
- CHAPTER XI THE OPPOSITION OF MARS
- CHAPTER XII THE SEA-SHORE AND THE ROLLERS
- CHAPTER XIII GREEN MOUNTAIN
- CHAPTER XIV SUNDAY AT THE MOUNTAIN
- CHAPTER XV WHY WE HAD ONLY A GALLON OF WATER
- CHAPTER XVI TRIPS FROM GARDEN COTTAGE
- CHAPTER XVII MARS BAY WITHOUT A COOK
- CHAPTER XVIII WIDE-AWAKE FAIR
- CHAPTER XIX LAST DAYS AT MARS BAY
- CHAPTER XX CHRISTMAS IN GARRISON
- CHAPTER XXI ABOUT THE KROOMEN
- CHAPTER XXII CLINKER CEMETERIES
- CHAPTER XXIII CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS
- CHAPTER XXIV THE DEVIL'S RIDING SCHOOL
- CHAPTER XXV HOMEWARD BOUND
CHAPTER IV - WHAT ASCENSION LOOKED LIKE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2011
- Frontmatter
- INTRODUCTION
- Contents
- CHAPTER I WHY WE WENT
- CHAPTER II THE VOYAGE
- CHAPTER III ST. HELENA
- CHAPTER IV WHAT ASCENSION LOOKED LIKE
- CHAPTER V ASCENSION PAST AND PRESENT
- CHAPTER VI ROUND ABOUT GARRISON
- CHAPTER VII A NIGHT ON THE CLINKER
- CHAPTER VIII CHANGE AND CHECK
- CHAPTER IX MARS BAY
- CHAPTER X A SUNDAY SCENE
- CHAPTER XI THE OPPOSITION OF MARS
- CHAPTER XII THE SEA-SHORE AND THE ROLLERS
- CHAPTER XIII GREEN MOUNTAIN
- CHAPTER XIV SUNDAY AT THE MOUNTAIN
- CHAPTER XV WHY WE HAD ONLY A GALLON OF WATER
- CHAPTER XVI TRIPS FROM GARDEN COTTAGE
- CHAPTER XVII MARS BAY WITHOUT A COOK
- CHAPTER XVIII WIDE-AWAKE FAIR
- CHAPTER XIX LAST DAYS AT MARS BAY
- CHAPTER XX CHRISTMAS IN GARRISON
- CHAPTER XXI ABOUT THE KROOMEN
- CHAPTER XXII CLINKER CEMETERIES
- CHAPTER XXIII CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS
- CHAPTER XXIV THE DEVIL'S RIDING SCHOOL
- CHAPTER XXV HOMEWARD BOUND
Summary
Three days brought us within sight of Ascension. What a sight it was! The sun had been up some hours when we anchored in Clarence Bay on the 13th of July, and the “Abomination of Desolation” seemed to be before our eyes as we looked eagerly at the land.
A few scattered buildings lay among reddish-brown cinders near the shore—a sugar-loaf hill of the same colour rose up behind and bounded the view. We looked about in a sort of hopeless way for “Green Mountain,” but it was nowhere to be seen, and we set it down as a fable—a mere myth. “Nothing green,” we said, “exists, or could exist here.” Stones, stones, everywhere stones, that have been tried in the fire and are now heaped about in dire confusion, or beaten into dust which we see dancing in pillars before the wind. Dust, sunshine, and cinders, and low yellow houses frizzling in it all!
Is that Ascension?
Well, not quite; its coast presented a livelier scene, though one that we would gladly have dispensed with. A black perpendicular wall of rock jutted out into the bay, and on either side of it a stretch of white glistening sand swept to north and south. It is on this rock that the “Tartar Stairs” are cut, and here we must land.
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- Information
- Six Months in AscensionAn Unscientific Account of a Scientific Expedition, pp. 45 - 56Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1878