'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From January 1863 to December 1864. (Edited by the Secretary.) Volume XVII.' [‎27] (56/524)

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BOMBAY GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. XXVii
cinnamon were dense, large, and luxuriant: but this spice does not pay
as an export.
The climate of Mahe is reputed singularly salubrious for an island
situate only five degrees from the equator. Fever is almost unknown,
and the commonest disease is dysentery. Wood of an excellent and
durable quality was formerly abundant on the slopes of the hills ; but the
supply was recklessly wasted, and is now nearly exhausted. The best
wood for building purposes is now brought from Silhouette. Sheep
will not thrive at Mahe. But goats it is said do well enough, although
I saw very few on the farms. No cattle are bred on the island ; nor is
beef killed unless when a cruizer may chance to call in. Both sheep and
cattle are imported in small numbers from Madagascar. A few ponies
also are imported, and 1 noticed one young camel looking very raw,
wet, and unhappy. Roads in a general way there are none, though one
leads from Port Victoria straight up across the backbone of the island,
but shrinks into a footpath as it descends the western water-shed.
I saw but one specimen of the coco-de-mer ; Praslin being the only
island where this palm unique it is said in the Seychelles is indigenous
or thrives spontaneously. It is called the loftiest and the longest-lived
of the palm tribe. When first it appears above ground it throws out
one large leaf, and for some years following, throws out annually one
leaf more. Then it begins to protrude its endogenous trunk ; and when
the trunk is well up, the age* of the tree may, it is supposed, be known
from the number of rings on its rind, added to the number of leaves on
its coronal. The w T ood, branches, and fruit are very serviceable. The
creole girls peel the leaves into thinnest strips, and work these into
delicate and heautiful baskets and fans. The shell of the fruit you
may find, anon, turned into the schallop of some Fukeer in Northern
India. As to the shape of this fruit, Government are aware, it
really is very peculiar.
The census, which distinguishes only between the sexes, gives the
population of the whole group of the Seychelles at from six to seven
thousand human beings. Of these, Mahe may number two thousand,
and Praslin five hundred inhabitants. But this estimate is approximate
merely. The population of Mahe is principally creoles ; these are
* Still, I understand Henslow in bis Botany to assert, yaat it is only in dicotyledons
that age can be known, because it is only hi exogenous plants that periodical or
gradual accretions at the circumference of the stem occur.