It was 1877. A woman came to Ascension Island. Her name was Mrs. Gill. Her husband David was an astronomer. He studied the stars. They looked for a place with the name Green Mountain. They saw black rock and red hills. They said: “Nothing green.”
But the mountain was there. Green Mountain is the highest place on the island. Today it has a big forest. People planted this forest.
Ascension is a small island in the Atlantic Ocean. It is very far from other land. Very few plants came to it.
In 1815, British soldiers came to the island. They needed water. The island had one spring. A spring is a place with water from the ground. It was high on Green Mountain.
In 1843, a man came to the island. His name was Joseph Dalton Hooker. He studied plants. He wanted many plants on the island. He wanted more rain for the soldiers. Trees and seeds came. The trees grew. In 1865, the mountain had 40 kinds of trees. There was a lot of water now.
The Gills saw many clouds on the mountain. At night the clouds were in front of the stars. David could not do his work.
The trees probably did not bring rain. But the trees probably caught water from the clouds. Small drops from the clouds hit the leaves. The drops became big. They fell to the ground.
The new plants are a problem too. Some old plants of the island are in danger now.
Today a scientist studies the clouds on Ascension. The scientist asks a question: how much water comes from the clouds?