in astronomy, is either right or oblique. Right ascension of the sun, or a star, is that degree of the equinoctial, counted from the beginning of aries, which rises with the sun or star in a right sphere. Oblique ascension is an arch of the equator intercepted between the first point of aries and that point of the equator which rises together with a star in an oblique sphere.

ASCENSION Day, a festival of the Christian Church, held ten days before Whitsuntide, in memory of our Saviour's ascension into heaven after his resurrection.

ASCENSION Island, a barren island on the coast of Africa, lying in W. Long. 17° 20', S. Lat. 7° 5'.

The following account is given of it by Mr Forster.

"This island was first discovered in 1501, by João de Nova Galego, a Portuguese navigator, who named it Ilha de Nossa Senhora de Conceição. The same admiral on his return to Portugal in 1502, discovered the island of St Helena, which obtained that name from the day of the discovery. Ascension was seen a second time by Alfonso d'Albuquerque on his voyage to India in 1503, and then received the name it now bears; but was already at that time in the same desolate condition as at present. We sent several parties on shore, who passed the night on the watch for turtles, which came to lay their eggs on the sandy shores. The dreariness of this island surpassed all the horrors of Easter Island and Tierra del Fuego, even without the assistance of snow. It was a ruinous heap of rocks, many of which, as far as we could discern from the ship, seemed to be totally changed by the fire of a volcano. Nearly in the centre of the island rises a broad white mountain of great height, on which we discerned some verdure by the help of our glasses, from whence it has obtained the name of Green Mountain.

"We landed early in the morning among some rocks, the surf being always immensely high on the great beach; which consists of minute shell-sand, chiefly of a snowy white, very deep, dry, and intolerable to the eyes when the sun shines. We ascended among heaps of black cavernous stone, which perfectly resembles the most common lavas of Vesuvius and Iceland, and of which the broken pieces looked as if they had been accumulated by art. The lava currents cooling very suddenly, may easily be imagined to produce such an effect. Having ascended about 12 or 15 yards perpendicular, we found ourselves on a great level plain of six or eight miles in circuit; in the different corners of which we observed a large hill of an exact conical shape, and of a reddish colour, standing perfectly insulated. Part of the plain between these conic hills was covered with great numbers of smaller hillocks, consisting of the same wild and ragged lava as that near the sea, and ringing like glass when two pieces are knocked together. The ground between the heaps of lava was covered with a black earth, on which we walked very firmly; but when these heaps did not appear, the whole was a red earth, which was so loose, and in such dry minute particles, that the wind raised clouds of dust upon it. The conic hills consisted of a very different sort of lava, which was red, soft, and crumbling into earth. One of these hills stands directly in front of the bay, and has a wooden cross on its summit, from whence the bay is said to take its name. Its sides are very steep, but a path near three quarters of a mile long winds round it to the summit. After examining this remarkable country a little longer, we concluded, with a great degree of probability on our side, That the plain on which we stood was once the crater or seat of a volcano, by the accumulation of whole cinders and pumice-stones the conic hills had been gradually formed; that the currents of lava which we now saw divided into many heaps, had perhaps been gradually buried in fresh cinders and ashes; and the waters coming down from the interior mountain in the rainy season had smoothened everything in their way, and filled up by degrees the cavity of the crater. The rocky black lava was the residence of numberless men of war birds and boobies, which sat on their eggs, and suffered us to come close to them.

"About eight in the evening, it being then quite dark, a small vessel came into the bay, and anchored directly within us. Captain Cook having hailed her repeatedly, received in answer that she was the Lucretia, a New York sloop, which had been at Sierra Leon, and was now come to catch turtles, in order to sell them at the windward islands of the West Indies. A lieutenant was sent on board, who learned from the master, that he had taken our ship to be a French Indiaman, and was very desirous of trading with English India ships, in which he was disappointed by the company's regulations. He dined with our officers the next day, but on the 31st at day-break left the island. On the 30th in the morning, we landed a second time; and, crossing the plain, arrived at a prodigious lava-current, intersected by many channels from six to eight yards deep, which bore strong marks of being worn by vast torrents of water, but were at present perfectly dry, the sun being in the northern hemisphere. In these gullies we found a small quantity of soil consisting of a black volcanic earth, mixed with some whitish particles gritty to the touch. Here we saw some small bunches of purflane, and a species of grass (Panicum tanquinum) which found sufficient nutriment in the dry soil. Having at last, with great fatigue, climbed over this extensive and tremendous current of lava, which was much more solid than the heaps nearer to the sea, we came to the foot of the Green Mountain, which even from the ship's place in the bay we had plainly distinguished to be a different nature from all the rest of the country. Those parts of the lava which surrounded it were covered with a prodigious quantity of purflane, and a kind of new fern (Lonicera Adenophora), where several flocks of wild goats were feeding. The great mountain is divided in its extremities, by various clefts, into several bodies; but in the centre they all run together, and form one broad mass of great height. The whole appears to consist of a gritty tophaceous limestone, which has never been attacked by the volcano, but probably existed prior to its eruption; its sides are covered with a kind of grass peculiar to the island, which Linnæus has named *Ariflora Advena*.

We likewise observed several flocks of goats feeding on it; but they were all excessively shy, and ran with surprising velocity along tremendous precipices, where it was impossible to follow them. The master of the New-York floo acquaintance us, that there is a spring of water on one part of this mountain, which falls down a great precipice, and is afterwards absorbed in the sand. I am almost persuaded, that, with a little trouble, Ascension might shortly be made fit for the residence of men. The introduction of furze (*Ulex Europaeus*), and of a few other plants which thrive best in a parched soil, and are not likely to be attacked by rats or goats, would soon have the same effect as at St Helena. The moisture attracted from the atmosphere by the high mountains in the centre of the island, would then no longer be evaporated by the violent action of the sun, but collect into rivulets, and gradually supply the whole island. A sod of grasses would everywhere cover the surface of the ground, and annually increase the stratum of mould, till it could be planted with more useful vegetables.

"We returned gradually to Crofs Bay, in the heat of noon, over the plain; having a space of more than five miles to traverse, where the sun burnt and blistered our faces and necks, and heated the soil to such a degree, that our feet were likewise extremely sore. About three o'clock we arrived at the water's side; and after bathing in a small cove among a few rocks, we made the signal for a boat, and were taken on board. The next forenoon we made another small excursion, in company with Captain Cook, towards the Green Mountain; but we were all of us so much fatigued, that we could not reach it. We made no new observations in the course of this day, the nature of the island being dreary beyond description in its outskirts."