Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/327

1842

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