FLOWERING PLANTS GROWING IN THE VOLCANIC ASH AT ASCENSION ISLAND
WIDEAWAKE PLAIN, ASCENSION ISLAND, WHICH IS COVERED WITH THOUSANDS OF BIRDS
A WIDEAWAKE
Coaling was continued on the 4th. The coal is put into bags at the dump and loaded into lighters, which are taken off by a tug and laid alongside the ship. The work is often awkward on account of the swell. It was a messy business, and the ship soon became covered in every part of her with dust. It took us many days to get really clean again. In order to keep an eye on things, I stayed near the scene of operations. Macklin ascended to the summit, and the following account from his diary is fairly descriptive of the island:
I went ashore early with Wilkins, who had with him his camera and cinematograph machine. He was going off with the commandant in a pinnace to an island where there was a large number of birds.
I first of all walked about the station and took a number of snapshots, after which I set off up the dusty track leading to Green Hill. It was a blazing hot day, and I wore nothing but singlet, shorts and shoes, and had a good sun hat. This garb was cool and gave a delightful sense of freedom in movement, but it proved, to my cost, to be an inadequate protection from the sun.