A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions/Volume 2/Chapter 10
Mount Kater, Hermite Island. Page 287.
CHAPTER X.
Sept.
CHAPTER X.
The term-day observations and absolute determinations were completed by the 4th of September, and being desirous to obtain a series of experiments in the vicinity of Cape Horn, strictly comparative with those arranged to be made at Port Louis in our absence, and similar to those we had made during the preceding winters, in situations favourable for comparison with the Van Diemen's Land observatory, preparations were made for the departure of the ships.
Before leaving Port Louis, however, I must notice some changes that became necessary, consequent upon the loss we were about to sustain in the services of the senior lieutenant of the Terror. Mr. McMurdo, who had distinguished himself by his zeal, activity, and skill on all occasions, had, during the whole period of our voyage, suffered frequently from a constitutional malady, which had now become so greatly aggravated by the arduous duties of his position, in a climate admitting of no repose, that the medical officers of the Expedition concurred, in their report to me, that it was essential, not only for the restoration of his health, but for the preservation of his life, that he should not again encounter the severities of an Antarctic navigation, but, as immediately as possible, return to a milder climate. As some opportunity might occur of his returning to England during the absence of the ships from Port Louis, it was considered desirable that he should not accompany us to Cape Horn. In his place Mr Sibbald was appointed senior lieutenant of the Terror; Mr. Oakeley, the senior mate, to act as lieutenant in the vacancy: and by the removal of Lieutenant Sibbald, Mr. Wood became senior lieutenant of the Erebus.
The magnetic observatory was placed in the charge of Lieutenant Sibbald, with a sufficient number of assistants to carry on a system of observations during our absence, upon such a plan as to secure a satisfactory record of the magnetic phenomena at the two places, distant from each other about 400 miles.
Sept. 8.These, and all other arrangements, being completed, we sailed, on the morning of the 8th of September, with a fresh breeze from the westward, and by noon were abreast of Bird Island, where we met a heavy swell from the eastward, the effect of the late storms from that quarter.
The wind veered to the south-west as we approached the entrance of the sound, and freshened in heavy squalls as we crossed the opening of Port William. The harbour appears contracted from this point of view, but there is sufficient space for as many vessels as are ever likely at any one time to anchor there.
After passing close to the Seal Rocks and rounding Cape Pembroke, we hauled close to the wind under moderate sail during the night.
A storm came on soon after noon the next day, Sept. 9. from the south-west, which continued with little intermission, and accompanied by snow and rain, but varying in direction between south and west. As we might have expected in such a tempestuous ocean, and at a period of the year corresponding with the boisterous month of March in our latitudes, we encountered during our passage from the Falkland Islands to Cape Horn very severe weather, the gales usually commencing in the south-west, veering to the west, and generally, as in the North Atlantic Ocean, ending in the north-west.
The birds met with in the greatest numbers were the Cape pigeon, grey petrel, sooty and black backed albatross, gigantic petrel, some penguins and a few tern; extensive patches of the two more common kinds of sea-weed were also frequently seen.
On the 16th, in latitude 54° 41′ S., and longitude Sept. 16.55° 12′ W., we obtained soundings in two hundred and eighty fathoms, on a bank of coarse black sand and small stones of volcanic origin; the shallowness of the water accounting for the short breaking which has always been remarked near this spot by former navigators, and was experienced by ourselves to our great discomfort. We were at this time distant above three hundred miles from Staten Island, and from Beauchêne Island, the nearest land, about two hundred miles. The temperature of the sea at two hundred and eighty, and one hundred and fifty fathoms, was 39°.8, and at the surface 39°.5. The specific gravity of water taken from those depths, and at the surface, was 1.0277 at 41°.
Sept. 18.South-easterly winds with more moderate weather prevailed between the 16th and 18th; so that by noon of that day we were in latitude 55° 40′ S., and longitude 63° 8′ W., having approached within fifty miles of Staten Island, and one hundred and forty of Cape Horn, yet we had no soundings with three hundred fathoms, and the temperature at that depth was found to be 37°.2, the surface being 40°.2. There appears to me no other way of accounting for this extraordinary depression of temperature, except by a current of water from the colder regions of the south running along the east shore of Tierra del Fuego, similar to that which I have already described as running from the Cape of Good Hope along the western coast of Africa[1], or possibly the proximity of a snow-covered land might be the cause of the sea being so much below the temperature due to that depth; for in the same latitude, and only two hundred and fifty miles to the eastward, when beyond the baneful influence of the land, we found the mean temperature of 39°.5 throughout the whole depth of our experiment, to one thousand fathoms.
At eight o'clock the next morning the snow-clad summits of the hills, whose southern termination Sept 19forms Cape Deceit, were seen bearing W.S.W. by compass, and at noon Cape Horn was observed, S. 62° W., distant between six and seven leagues.
The poetical descriptions that former navigators have given of this celebrated and dreaded promontory, occasioned us to feel a degree of disappointment when we first saw it; for, although it stands prominently forward, a bold, almost perpendicular headland, in whose outline it requires but little imaginative power to detect the resemblance of a "sleeping lion, facing and braving the southern tempests," yet it is part only of a small island, and its elevation, not exceeding five or six hundred feet, conveys to the mind nothing of grandeur. But the day was beautifully fine, so that it is probable we saw this cape of terror and tempests under some disadvantage. We passed it at 3 p.m., at the distance of about a mile and a half, which was as near as we could approach it with prudence, by reason of the dangerous rocks which lie off to the east and west, and whose black points were rendered conspicuous by the white foam of the breakers, amongst which numerous seals were sporting. There was some snow on the summit of the cape, and its sides were clothed with a brownish coloured vegetation; beyond it, the shores of the island consisted of black vertical cliffs, with a curiously cleft rock at its north-western extreme.
As we stood across the Bay of St. Francis, we were struck with the wildness and beauty of the scenery, its numerous islands and lofty peaks, more particularly those of Hermite Island, whose southern extreme forms the bold perpendicular promontory called Cape Spencer. We beat up to the entrance of St. Martin's Cove, but just after sunset, when we were running into it, the wind suddenly shifted and compelled us to anchor in a very exposed position, in seventeen fathoms, on fine sand and black stones, but not very good holding ground.
I despatched Mr. Tucker up the cove to examine the nature of the harbour, a clear moonlight night facilitating his operations. He soon returned with a favourable account of the anchorage, and reported having seen a fire at the head of the cove, indicative of the presence of natives, whom he judiciously left undisturbed.
Sept. 20.As soon as day broke Captain Crozier and I went to make a further examination of the harbour; when near the end of the inlet we saw a canoe and three men standing near it; one of them approached us unarmed, and without the least appearance of fear, pointing out the most convenient spot for us to land, for the surf was heavy on the beach, and continually calling out "Yamma Coyna," words which have been differently interpreted by Captain Fitzroy and Mr. Darwin. I am fully persuaded the former is right in considering them to be an expression of welcome, for the man could hardly be calling to us to give him any thing, when we were so distant from him that his voice was at times scarcely audible; nor when we landed did they hold out their hands, as if in expectation of receiving any present from us. They were perfectly naked, with the exception of a small otter skin thrown over their shoulders, which greatly surprised us, for the ground was still thinly covered with snow. Their women and children they had probably sent out of the way when they saw us approaching; and there was not an article of any kind to be seen in their miserable "wigwam." We stayed a short time with them to establish a friendly confidence, and at parting they again shouted to us "Yamma Coyna," which we adopted as a symbol of friendship. They embarked in their canoe soon after we left the shore; and as they pulled out of the cove, close past our ships, they shouted the same words, continuing to do so as long as they could be heard, when at nearly a mile from us, and paddling away as fast as they were able, anticipating the approaching "williwaws," or violent gusts of wind, which followed in the evening, and which they had predicted to us by signs that could not be misunderstood.
The cove appearing to be sufficiently sheltered for our purpose, we made the signal for the ships to enter, and by the time we got on board they were under-weigh. A gentle breeze blew directly out of the harbour, so light that our heavy ships would have scarcely felt its influence, so that we were obliged to have recourse to the tedious operation of warping up to the anchorage, and before this could be done, we had sharp squalls from the hills, which greatly impeded us, and rendered the work far more laborious; so that it was not until long after dark that both ships were moored in the places selected for them. The small bower of the Erebus being near the south shore, in twelve fathoms and a half, on fine sand, mud, and shells, and the best bower on the north shore, in ten fathoms, with seventy-two fathoms of cable on each, which stretched nearly across the cove at its head: the south point of the inlet bearing N. 80° E., the north point N. 55° E.; the north end of Chanticleer Island N. 74° E., and Foster's Peak, on the south shore, S. 17° E.
Sept. 21.We were sorry not to be ready to co-operate with the numerous observatories which would be this day engaged making simultaneous magnetic observations, it being one of the appointed term-days; but, although I had landed in the morning, and chosen a site for our magnetic observatory, much time and labour would be required to clear away the trees and underwood which encumbered the ground; and it was therefore impossible even to put up our observatories, or land the instruments until that was accomplished. The loss of this day's observations for our especial object was, however, of less consequence, as I had fortunately arranged with the party of observers left at the Falkland Islands, to hold an additional term-day, on the 4th of October, for which we had abundance of time to prepare.
A large party from each ship, under the immediate direction of Captain Crozier, laboured hard for several days, clearing the only spot of level ground of sufficient extent for our purpose: this proved to be a swamp, and, after digging through the upper crust, of about two feet in thickness, they found a liquid bog, six feet in depth: beneath this, was a stiff clay, and, at length, by driving numerous piles into it, and placing casks filled with sand upon them, a firm foundation was made. It was still necessary completely to isolate these supports of the instruments from the upper crust of the bog, by digging a deep ditch round the building, which effectually prevented the vibration of the swamp, and the tremulous motion of the magnets, which the footsteps of any one approaching the observatory had previously produced. Sept. 29.The regular series of magnetometric observations was commenced on the 29th of September.
The shores of St. Martin's Cove are composed of a very compact greenstone and hornblende rock, rising abruptly from the sea to an elevation of about twelve hundred feet; above these are some rugged peaks, which attain nearly two thousand feet. The hills surrounding the harbour form an amphitheatre, and their sides, to about a thousand feet, are clothed with the evergreen and deciduous beech, so densely interwoven that it is almost possible to penetrate them, except by the well-beaten footpaths of the Fuegians. The mountain peaks are of very compact greenstone, and highly magnetic, possessing the property of polarity in an extraordinary degree, the poles of the fragments broken away from the mass lying always in the line of the dipping needle, the whole forming a magnet of enormous magnitude, but not of sufficient power to produce any anomalous expressions from the instruments we employed; although, in one spot, we found the dipping needle gave an erroneous result of nearly half a degree.
The geological structure of Hermite Island, which Mr. McCormick examined with great diligence, is described in the Appendix; and the botanical account by Dr. Hooker, which possesses an unusual degree of interest, is inserted here.
"The scenery of Hermite Island so closely resembles that of many parts of the West of Scotland, that the two countries seem only to differ in the species of animals and plants which respectively characterise the northern and southern hemispheres. There are the same narrow arms of the sea, confined by high mountains, in Hermite Island, as form the salt-water lochs of Argyleshire; with similar deep and close bays, hemmed in by rocky, precipitous, and often inaccessible shores. The mountains rise at once from the water's edge, clothed for half their elevation with a low green forest, and crowned with rugged precipices and grey masses of rock; while torrents, heard, rather than seen, till they emerge in foaming cascades, occupy every gully. In Fuegia these wild scenes are rendered gloomy, and, to the traveller who has recently quitted a more genial climate, positively forbidding, by the almost total absence of animated nature, and by the clouded sky, constant storms, and vexed ocean, added to the silence which is only broken by the hollow voice of the torrent and the cry of the savage.
"The various sea-weeds that abound in the Scottish lochs are represented in Fuegia by an infinitely more luxuriant growth of the same species as were mentioned to be natives of the Falkland Islands and Kerguelen Island. Though very different from our northern Algæ, they are equally, and some of them even better, adapted for making kelp. The rocks immediately above the sea are generally barren, or only covered with Lichens; but sometimes they produce a few green tufted plants; and wherever there is any beach, it yields several kinds of scurvy-grass (Cardamine hirsuta), the wild celery (Apium graveolens), besides a Plantago, Chrysosplenium, and some other herbs in considerable abundance.
"From the shore to an elevation of eight hundred feet, the steep sides of the hills, except where absolute precipices intervene, are clad with an uniformly lurid though deep green forest, consisting entirely of the following trees:—the evergreen beech (Fagus Forsteri), that never sheds its shining coriaceous foliage—this is the most prevalent tree; the deciduous beech (Fagus Antarctica), of which the leaves fall at the approach of winter, after assuming the same tints, heightened by comparison with its evergreen neighbour, as characterise our English beech: its leaves are broader, of a thinner texture, paler and brighter green, and beautifully plaited. In the late spring of these antarctic regions, when any part of a day was occasionally warm and clear, the bursting of the young folded leaves of the deciduous beech, from the sheathing and gummy scales by which they had been protected during winter, was to us, who had seen no kind of tree for twelve months, nor any such sign of an English spring for upwards of thrice that period, a most agreeable phenomenon; rendered still more delightful by the resinous scent with which the woods were filled. Mingled with these beeches grow scattered trees of the Winter's bark (Drimys Winteri), so named after the discoverer, John Winter, the companion of Drake. The tree is tall and straight, with large glossy leaves, paler underneath. Every part is highly aromatic and warm to the taste; and the cortex affords the medicinal Winter's bark of commerce.
"The three trees, above described, occupy exactly the same position in Fuegia which the birch, oak, and mountain ash do in Scotland.
"There is a remarkable absence of undergrowth in the forests: few shrubs, and hardly any herbaceous plants appear. Among the former is the beautiful holly-leaved barberry, which, except the Veronica elliptica (V. decussata of our gardens), is the only very handsome-flowered plant in this part of Fuegia. Two or three other woody plants, a second species of barberry, an Arbutus and an Escallonia (the latter allied to the saxifrages of the northern hemisphere), almost conclude the list of shrubs. The banks and rocks that border the torrents exhibit a few Ferns and a luxuriant growth of Mosses. These abound throughout Hermite Island, covering the rocks, moors, and trunks of trees, and thriving in the gullies formed by the streams, where there is not light enough to permit the vegetation of flowering plants. Both in the number of individuals, and the extent of ground here occupied by the respective kinds, the preponderance of Lichens and Mosses is truly remarkable.
"Ascending, the forest gradually becomes denser and more stunted, till it is rendered quite impervious by the trees branching from the very ground. At the season of our visit, traces of last winter's snow were seen at the upper limit of the forest: the surface was hard, but often treacherous, because concealing torrents which had gradually undermined their icy bridges. When such hollows are exposed, it is curious to observe the Arbutus covered with flowers, which ought to have expanded the previous year, but which had been retarded and protected by a mantle of snow. Yet a little higher, and the dwarfish trees dwindle to what resembles a basket-work of growing twigs. So densely interwoven is the living mass, which reaches to the knee or higher, that to crawl through a few yards of this vegetation is a task accompanied with more fatigue, pain, and tardiness of progress than the traveller suffers when traversing loose sand, earth scorched by the sun, or deep snow. No amount of force can tear a way: fishermen's boots alone afford protection against the spiny branches, which threaten to stake the pedestrian, as he sinks, at each step, among the boughs. Here, the length of limb, that proved an inconvenience when crawling among the low trees, becomes very advantageous. On approaching the utmost limit of the forest, the matting grows more and more impervious; and it seems hopeless to attempt proceeding. But suddenly a facility is afforded: the trees, which lower down were of a girth of fifteen feet, grow so closely at this elevation, that the traveller, instead of walking under their shade, can tread upon their topmost branches.
"Above this, the wood gradually opens out into a moorland tract, remarkable for the absence of Grasses and the abundance of Lichens. Here and there a mountain tarn diversifies the surface: deep, black, quiet pools fill the depressions; their surface presenting no water-herb, and only a few submerged Mosses and Confervæ at the bottom. Though this region is barren to the eye, it is rich in alpine plants, which are all of a tufted and mossy habit. A few, as Caltha, Astelia, Forstera, and Donatia, form broad bright green patches; but the majority are of a greyer hue. The Empetrum, indigenous to the Falklands, grows here, though not abundantly. Like its Scottish congener, it is the favourite food of a species of grouse. Small shrubs, chiefly of Arbutus, or an Aster-like Composita, with white flowers, diversify the ground; but the vegetation consists mainly of species belonging to the European genera Caltha, Gentiana, Pinguicula, Primula, Saxifraga, Senecio, Juncus, Carex, Viola, Oxalis, and various grasses. In moist places, Sphagnum, or bog-moss, is very common, with many of the allied kinds of moss which compose peat in the alpine districts of Europe.
"The mountain-tops are very bare; affording only Mosses and Lichens, which cling with astonishing pertinacity to the rugged faces of the sharp peaks and piles of rock. On the south and south-western sides of these weather-beaten precipices that handsomest of all Lichens (Usnea melaxantha) braves the perennial blasts and snow-storms of the Antarctic Ocean; spreading out its slender bright sulphur-coloured branches, which seem as if expressly formed of a rigid leathery substance, so stiff as to resist the force of the elements. In the clefts of the very pinnacles of the mountains a few plants may still be detected, which have crept upward from regions more congenial to their development.
"As Hermite Island is situated close to Cape Horn, and there are no flowering plants to be found in any higher southern latitude, a list[2] is appended of the indigenous species which grow in this parallel, and at a height of upwards of 1500 feet. Like the degraded and savage native, who wanders naked among the bleak rocks and almost equally uninviting woods of this miserable land, these plants may be justly considered the hardiest of their race in the southern hemisphere.
"In the preceding remarks I have attempted to sketch the general aspect of vegetation in a landscape strikingly analogous to the Western Highlands of Scotland. Persons, intimate with the latter country, have only to clothe it in imagination with the plants of Hermite Island, and they will readily understand the relations, in habit and station, which the most remarkable of these bear to one another. The Fuegian Flora possesses some other points of interest, especially when viewed in comparison with that of the antarctic islands lying to the south of New Zealand, also with that of the Falklands, South Georgia, Tristan d'Acunha, and Kerguelen Island. All these countries, though the latter is distant more than 5,000 miles, seem to have borrowed many plants from this, the great botanical centre of the Antarctic Ocean. And it is a still more surprising fact, that the vegetation of Fuegia includes a considerable number of English plants; though 106 degrees of ocean roll between, and some of the species in question inhabit no intermediate latitudes.
"Like Lord Auckland's and Campbell's Islands, Tierra del Fuego exhibits a luxuriance of vegetation which its rigorous climate and low annual temperature would not have led us to expect. The same cause effects this in both longitudes; namely, the absence of all sudden changes from heat to cold, and vice versâ. But though the individual species grow luxuriantly, they are by no means so beautiful as those of the beforementioned islands, lying only three degrees farther north. Thus, the Metrosideros, a shrub allied to the myrtle, and the white-flowered Dracophyllum, are replaced in Fuegia by almost flowerless beeches. Instead of three shrubby Veronicas, there is but one, which is identical with the Auckland Island species, viz. Veronica elliptica; first described and so called by Forster, who gathered it in New Zealand; but introduced into England from Cape Horn, and generally known by the name of V. decussata.
"Of the ninety-seven flowering plants indigenous to Auckland and Campbell Islands, about thirteen are common to the southern extremity of the American continent; but none, except the Veronica, is remarkable for beauty. The splendid Chrysobactron Rossii and lovely Compositæ of these groups have no representatives here. Fuegia, however, boasts some conspicuous plants: the holly-leaved barberry (Berberis ilicifolia) is very handsome; Geum Chiloense is an established favourite in our gardens; and a few of the smaller alpine species may vie in grace with those of the Scottish Alps. There is a want of bright tint in the landscape; or of any one conspicuous plant which may give it colouring. This is hardly compensated by Tierra del Fuego being the native place of that universal favourite, the scarlet Fuchsia; a plant of peculiarly graceful form, whose culture requires little care, and which is, perhaps, among the most valuable ornaments of our gardens, whether of the rich or poor. Though not seen on Hermite Island, the Fuchsia flourishes on the neighbouring coast of Fuegia, and adorns with its bright flowers the gloomy forest of the beech-tree: for both inhabit the valleys, choked by everlasting glaciers, which descend from the mountains to the sea, on the west coast of this inhospitable land. The Fuchsia and other plants, which might be considered tender for this region, flourish in the equable though chilly temperature maintained by the presence of these sluggish and perennial cataracts of ice on the Fuegian mountains. The main difference between the Flora of Tierra del Fuego and of the islands south of New Zealand consists in the abundance of Rubiacece which mark the latter, and which are replaced in the region we are now considering by an increased proportion of Compositæ.
"When treating of the Falkland Islands and Kerguelen Island respectively, it was stated how much they are dependent on Fuegia for a large proportion of their plants; and an examination of the botany of South Georgia, farther east than the Falklands from Fuegia, and of Tristan d'Acunha, which, like Kerguelen Island, lies much nearer to the coast of Africa, also exhibits the same affinity. Strange and inexplicable though it may appear, it is still true that plants, found in these isolated specks alone, must have traversed (granting migration to be the cause of specific identity in distant spots) thousands of miles of the stormiest ocean of our globe. A glance at the chart shows the infinitely small proportion borne by these islets to the endless waste of waters wherein they are placed; and the prodigious obstacles that such objects as seeds must have surmounted in performing, with unimpaired vitality, these remote voyages, if we suppose their dispersion to have taken place subsequently to the land and water holding the relative position they at present maintain.
"The common observer and the scientific inquirer will alike find much singularity in the vegetation of Fuegia. It exhibits a larger proportion of plants, either identical with those of Britain, or representatives of them, than exists in any other country of the southern hemisphere. It is always interesting to meet with familiar objects where they are least expected, and to recognise, in the natural productions of a strange land, the same, or similar to those we have often seen elsewhere. Tierra del Fuego possesses, in common with Britain, the sea-pink or thrift (Statice Armeria); a primrose, so like our Primula farinosa that they are scarcely distinguishable; the common starwort or Callitriche, Montia fontana, Arenaria media, Erigeron alpinus, Gnaphalium luteo-album, Cardamine hirsuta, and Apium graveolens (celery), which, though a rank weed when it grows wild in England, is so wholesome and mild in Fuegia, probably from the absence of the sun's direct rays, that it affords an excellent salad. There are also the Hippuris vulgaris (mare's tail), Cerastium arvense, Sisymbrium Sophia, Lathyrus maritimus, Convolvulus sepium, Limosella aquatica, Epilobium tetragonum, Draba incana (a highland plant), Sagina procumbens, Galium Aparine (cleavers), the common Dandelion, Empetrum rubrum, which differs in the colour of the berries only from the Scottish crowberry, Plantago maritima, Chenopodium glaucum, Aira flexuosa, Phleum alpinum, Alopecurus alpinus, Agrostis alba, Poa nemoralis and pratensis, Festuca duriuscula, Triticum repens, and Lolium perenne, all well-known inhabitants of our shores, meadows, mountains, or woods. The affinity between the Fuegian and British Floras becomes more evident on looking to the common genera of the former country: they are, Ranunculus, Caltha, Berberis, Cardamine, Draba, Arabis, Thlaspi, Silene, Lychnis, Stellaria, Cerastium, Oxalis, Viola, Geranium, Drosera, Rubus, Ribes, Potentilla (P. anserina grows in South Chili), Myriophyllum, Saxifraga, Chrysosplenium, Asperula, Galium, Valeriana, Senecio, Hieracium, Aster, Taraxacum, Gnaphalium, Arbutus, Gentiana, Myosotis, Pinguicula, Samolus, Scutellaria, Limosella, Stachys, Anagallis, Plantago, Chenopodium, Rumex, Polygonum, Empetrum, Fagus Urtica, Triglochin, Juncus and Luzula, Carex, Scirpus, Eleocharis, Isolepis, Schœnus, and nineteen genera of Grasses. Many of the genera in this long list are unknown in the tropics. Others exist there only in species bearing little analogy to their congeners of the colder or temperate latitudes. As they are recognised on the shores or mountains of Fuegia, they perpetually draw the traveller's mind to that interesting subject—the diffusion of species over the surface of our earth.
"As we descend in the scale of vegetable creation, the number of plants common to the opposite hemisphere is seen to augment: the increase bearing an inverse proportion to their development. Thus, there are two kinds of Ferns; as many Lycopodia; a Chara; forty-eight species of Mosses; twelve Hepaticæ, and a very large amount of Algæ; while almost every Fuegian Lichen is not only an acknowledged but a prevalent species in Britain.
"Fuegia is richer in Mosses than any other antarctic island: perhaps no part of the globe of equal extent yields more or finer species than Hermite Island. During the short stay of the Antarctic Expedition one hundred different kinds were found; and the naturalist, who is accustomed to collecting this tribe of plants, is well aware that a protracted search is needful in order to exhaust the Mosses of even a limited area. Polytrichum dendroides, the noblest of Mosses, forms a miniature forest in the woods. Seven species of Andræa occur; a genus which only four years before had been supposed peculiar to the northern hemisphere; but of which one kind has been since found at the Cape of Good Hope, the A. subulata, first detected by Dr. Harvey on Table Mountain, where it was also gathered by the officers of the Antarctic Expedition: others on Lord Auckland's group, Hermite Island, and Kerguelen Island; in Tasmania, and almost every antarctic island visited by the expedition; thus nearly trebling the number of species.
"There are very few esculent plants in Fuegia, and the natives use none of them except a Fungus, described by Mr. Darwin. They are, the celery, and a kind of scurvy-grass, also plentiful in the Falklands and Campbell's Island (Cardamine hirsuta). The fruits of a species of Currant, Barberry, Crowberry, Myrtle, and Bramble are eatable in tarts; the latter, indeed, is excellent, uncooked. The Tussock-grass is not so plentiful as on the Falklands, though it grows, not unfrequently, on the outlying islands. Winter's bark, now little used in our country, proved of great value to the boats' crews, when detached from Captain King's surveying ship, the Beagle. The wood of Berberis ilicifolia is of a bright gamboge yellow, and affords a clear and strong dye of that colour. Some of the large Sea-weeds of the Fuegian shores have been analysed by Dr. E. D. Thomson, and found to yield abundance of manna, besides a much larger proportion of iodine than the Algæ of the northern hemisphere.
"This sketch of the botany of a country long and undeservedly considered the most inhospitable, if not the most barren, in the world, may be concluded by the remark, that, however credible in themselves are the reports of voyagers, they ought in fairness to be considered in connexion with the impressions to which the previous events of their several voyages are likely to have given rise. For instance, we, who had lately explored a more boisterous ocean, and had visited incomparably bleaker coasts, could find charms in the wild woodland scenery, secluded bays, precipitous mountains, and interesting vegetation of Tierra del Fuego, which even its gales and snow-storms were insufficient to dispel; for, terrible as the war of elements here is, we were in a measure sheltered from its fury. Far different was the aspect the country must have worn in the eyes of Cook, Banks, and Solander! They had recently quitted the magnificent bay of Rio de Janeiro, its fervid sun and glowing vegetation. Anson, again, with his reduced company, palsied by scurvy and other diseases, could have little dreamt of the snug harbours and abundance of antiscorbutic diet, which here offered both shelter to his shattered vessels, and the means of recruiting the health of his crew. The naturalist who first visited the Fuegian shores felt probably only disappointment when recognising the familiar genera and representative species of his European home: he would naturally infer, with a corresponding diminution of interest, that analogous latitudes produce an analogous vegetation in opposite hemispheres. Experience has proved the fallacy of such a conclusion; and accordingly the Flora of Fuegia claims an additional and peculiar charm, in its being the only region south of the tropics where the botany of our temperate zone is, as it were, repeated to a very considerable extent."
- ↑ Vol. I. p. 34.
- ↑ Only four species of flowering plants reach the top of Mount Kater, a peak of greenstone, 1700 feet above the sea, and the culminant point of the island. They are:—Umbelliferæ: Azorella Selago (also found in Kerguelen Island).—Compos.: Abrotanella emarginata (a Falkland Island plant).—Ericeæ: Pernettya pumila (frequent from Central Chili to Cape Horn).—Empetreæ: Empetrum rubrum (very near the E. nigrum of N. Europe, and also frequent from Central Chili to Cape Horn). The following eleven species reach an elevation of 1500 feet on greenstone; either on Kater's peak, Mount Foster, or another peak which was examined: Viola tridentata, Saxifraga bicuspidata, Escallonia serrata (starved, a plant allied to Saxifraga), Azorella lycopodioides, Ourisia breviflora (allied to Veronica), Drapetes muscosa (a genus of Daphneæ), Fagus Antarctica (the deciduous beech, prostrate and only three inches long) Luzula, sp.? (a species allied to the Arctic L. arcuata); three grasses, Triodia Antarctica, Aira parvula, and Festuca erecta.