The whole island is of volcanic origin; its circumference, according to Beatson,[1] is about twenty-eight miles. The central and largest part consists of rocks of a feldspathic nature, generally decomposed to an extraordinary degree; and when in this state, presenting a singular assemblage of alternating, red, purple, brown, yellow, and white, soft, argillaceous beds. From the shortness of our visit, I did not examine these beds with care; some of them, especially those of the white, yellow, and brown shades, originally existed as streams of lava, but the greater number were probably ejected in the form of scoriæ and ashes: other beds of a purple tint, porphyritic with crystal-shaped patches of a white, soft substance, which are now unctuous, and yield, like wax, a polished streak to the nail, seem once to have existed as solid claystone-porphyries: the red argillaceous beds generally have a brecciated structure, and no doubt have been formed by the decomposition of scoriæ. Several extensive streams, however, belonging to this series, retain their stony character; these are either of a blackish-green colour, with minute acicular crystals of feldspar, or of a very pale tint, and almost composed of minute, often scaly, crystals of feldspar, abounding with microscopical black specks; they are generally compact and laminated; others, however, of similar composition, are cellular and somewhat decomposed. None of these rocks contain large crystals of feldspar, or have the harsh fracture peculiar to trachyte. These feldspathic lavas and tuffs are the uppermost or those last erupted; innumerable dikes, however, and great masses of molten rock, have subsequently been injected into them. They converge, as they rise, towards the central curved ridge, of which one point attains the elevation of 2,700 feet. This ridge is the highest land in the island; and it once formed the northern rim of a great crater, whence the lavas of this series flowed: from its ruined condition, from the southern half having been removed, and from the violent dislocation which the whole island has undergone, its structure is rendered very obscure. [1] Governor Beatson’s “Account of St. Helena.”