280 NOTES ON THE BOTANY 
tide-guage is placed by the jetty. Also an excellent mag- 
netic observatory, where the dip, intensity, and variation of 
the needle are carefully registered by these able and practiced 
observers; the officers relieving one another in regular suc- 
cession during the performance of this duty. And never did 
I meet with such devotees to science. Captain Ross’s little 
hammock swings close to his darling pendulum, a large hole 
in the thin partition allowing him to view it any moment; 
while Captain Crozier’s hammock is just alongside. The 
floor of this room is mother earth, from our dearth of timber. 
* At my request, the Captain has been so kind as to add 
to these observations another series, to ascertain the rate of 
evaporation in these islands; and Hooker, the botanist, has 
obligingly drawn up a report on the Grasses; our prevailing 
Graminee being considered as unknown in Europe. 
* The splendid Tussack Grass is the gold and the glory of 
the Falklands, and it will yet, I hope, make the fortune of 
Orkney and the owners of Irish peat-bogs. Every animal 
here devours this grass with avidity, and fattens upon it, 
in a short time. It may be planted and cut, like the 
Guinea grass of the West Indies. The blades are about 
six feet long, and from two to three hundred shoots spring 
from one plant. I have proved, by several experiments, that 
aman can cut one hundred bundles in a day, and a horse 
will greedily eat five of these bundles in that time. Indeed, 
so fond of it are both horses and cows, that they will devour 
dry Tussack thatch from the roofs of the cottages, in prefe- 
rence to good grass. About 4 inches of the root tastes like 
the Mountain Cabbage (Palm). It loves a rank, wet, peat- 
bog, with the sea-spray dashing over it, and wherever the 
waves beat with the greatest vehemence, and the saline spray 
is carried farthest, there the Tussack Grass thrives the best, 
provided also it is on the soil it prefers. All the smaller - 
islands, which help to form the Falkland group, and some W * 
them are as large as Guernsey, are covered with it, and it is 
nutritious all the year round." our 
