REPORT ON THE BOTANY OF THE ISLANDS OF THE SOUTHERN OCEAN. 137 



Captain Carmichael's sojourn in the island was during the last month of 1816 and the 

 first three months of 1817. He and his party appear to be the only persons who have 

 succeeded in reaching the summit of the dome. 



What Carmichael has published l on the aspects and composition of the vegetation is 

 so well written that we deem it better to extract the more interesting passages than to 

 condense them. They follow here : — 



" The face of the mountain, as far up as the base of the dome, is mostly covered with brushwood, 

 intermixed with fern and long grass, which veil its native ruggedness. In many parts, however, it 

 is completely bare, and presents to view the edges of a vast number of strata arranged horizontally, 

 or at slight degrees of inclination. ■ These strata are in general from five to ten feet in thickness, 

 and vary essentially in their internal structure. The greater number are of solid rock, of a bluish- 

 grey colour and extreme hardness, in some instances homogeneous, in others exhibiting crystals of 

 hornblende, felspar, and olivin sparingly scattered, or forming more than a moiety of the compound 

 mass. Between those are frequently interposed beds of scoria cohering from the effect of partial 

 fusion ; of tufa studded with crystals of augite ; or of ashes condensed by the pressure of the 

 superincumbent mass. The latter, still retaining in a great measure their friable nature, moulder 

 gradually away, and then leave the more compact strata in projecting shelves. Along the north- 

 west side of the island runs a belt of low land about six miles long, varying from a quarter of a 

 mile to a mile in breadth, and presenting to the sea a perpendicular front from fifty to three 

 hundred feet in height. The whole of this plain is a confused assemblage of stony fragments, 

 scoria, and other volcanic products, resting on a bed of lava. . . . The surface, though apparently 

 smooth, and even while clothed with its native herbage, is in fact extremely irregular, being 

 everywhere broken by small ridges of loose stones concealed under a mere scurf of soil. Between 

 those ridges, however, the soil is pretty deep, and consists for the most part of the remains of 

 decayed vegetables, with here and there a substratum of alluvial earth approaching to the nature 

 of clay. . . . This soil has been found admirably adapted for the production of culinary vegetables, 

 but is far too light to support the weight of trees or large shrubs. . . . The northern extremity 

 of the plain is in a great measure cleared of its wood. By setting fire to the grass the trees 

 have been so far scorched as to destroy their vegetation ; but they still be' strewed on the ground, 

 and it will cost some labour to remove them. The rest is still in a state of nature, covered with 

 an impenetrable copse. 



" The ascent to the peak is practicable in sundiy places, but the undertaking is attended with 

 serious difficulties and not free from danger. I went up on the 4th of January, accompanied by 

 Dr Evers, a couple of servants, and a guide, who had been up some days before. We experienced 

 some obstruction at the outset in making our way through the long grass (Spartina arundinacca) 

 which grows along the lower part of the mountain in close entangled tufts. As we advanced, our 

 progress was retarded by the extreme steepness of the ascent and the loose incohesive nature of the 

 rocks, which we could hardly venture to touch, lest these fragments should fall upon our heads ; 

 nor did we run less risk in availing ourselves of the arboreous Phylica to support our weight, for 

 the greater portion of these being rotten, it was necessary for us to choose with caution, as a mistake 



1 Transactions of the Linncan Society of London, xii. (1818) pp. 483-513. 

 (bot. chalu exp. — PART II. — 1884.) B 18* 



