REPORT OX THE BOTANY OF THE ISLANDS OF THE SOUTHERN OCEAN. 135 



up his legs, tucking in his head, and screwing himself down into the grass like a hare into her 

 form. We followed his example, and found that the perfection of the shelter to be thus obtained 

 from the scanty herbage was astonishing. 



" The squall being felt at the anchorage, up went the recall flag on board the ship, and as soon 

 as the hail ceased, I had to hurry down to the shore, without having ascended the mountain-side 

 for more than five hundred feet." 



In another place Mr Moseley says that Tristan da Cunha has a peculiar, cold, barren, 

 uninhabitable appearance, which seems to be characteristic of the islands of the Southern 

 Ocean. 



With regard to the representatives of the animal kingdom in the islands that partly 

 or wholly subsist on vegetable productions, formerly there were wild hogs, goats, and 

 rabbits in large numbers on the main island, the descendants of a few individuals placed 

 thereon by various mariners. In 1873, however, according to Moseley, the wild goats 

 and pigs were certainly extinct, and the rabbits nearly, if not quite so. At the time 

 of the visit of the Challenger Expedition, the islanders possessed about 400 or 500 

 head of cattle, and as many sheep. There were still at that date plenty of pigs, though 

 no more coats in Inaccessible Island. 



s^ 



History of the Botanical Exploration of the Group. 



Disregarding a few odd specimens picked up and preserved by various persons who 

 have landed on the main island, we are only aware of the existence of four collections 

 of Tristan da Cunha plants ; and of these we have been able to examine and compare 

 three. The first was made by the accomplished and enthusiastic French traveller and 

 botanist, Aubert du Petit-Thouars, in January 1793. 1 This collection we have not seen, 

 but the descriptions and figures of the plants published 2 by Thouars himself are in nearly 

 every instance sufficient for their identification, so that few difficulties have arisen in deter- 

 mining the later collections in accordance with his original names of the plants. Thouars 

 was on his way to the Mascarene Islands, in a small vessel of less than one hundred tons 

 burthen, when the captain found it necessary to put in at Tristan da Cunha for water ; and 

 althouo-h he had very little time (five days), and was only able to land on the principal 

 island, he not only made a nearly complete collection of the plants of that island, but 

 he also surveyed the others; and in the work of which the title is given below are a 

 map and several views of the three islands. The time actually devoted to botanising 

 is very circumstantially set forth. Ou the 3d of January, the day of their arrival, 



1 Near the same date of the same year, Sir George Stanton, who was one of the members of Lord 

 Macartney's embassy to China, collected a few plants in Tristan da Cunha, Amsterdam, and St Paul Islands. 



2 Melanges de Botanique et de Voyages. Premier Receuil, Paris, 1811. There are two parts, consecutively 

 paged, entitled respectively, Description Abrege des Isles de Tristan d'Acugna, and Esquisse de la Flore de 

 ITsle de Tristan d'Acugna. The latter includes figures of ten of the flowering plants and four of the ferns. 



