MACDONALD GROUP. 



HEARD ISLAND. 1 



INTRODUCTORY NOTES. 



This being the last of a series of islands, comprising the Prince Edward Group, the Crozets, 

 and Kerguelen Island, dealt with in this work and enjoying a similar climate and sup- 

 porting the same kind of vegetation, it is convenient to examine their flora here jointly. 

 But first of all a few words may be said respecting the climate of the islands named, for, 

 although the most southerly of them is not in a higher latitude than the centre of England, 

 the nature, rather than the rigour, of the climate is such as to be very unfavourable to 

 vegetation, not only to flowering plants and ferns but also to the lower cryptogams. This 

 is especially the case in Heard Island, which is still in its glacial epoch. In the extracts 

 which follow from Mr Moseley's notes will be found practically all that is known on the 

 climate of Heard, together with comparisons of the climates of the other islands under 

 consideration. Kerguelen, which lies only some 300 miles north of Heard, has a much 

 milder climate, yet by no means a pleasant one. The Rev. A. E. Eaton, who spent several 

 months there in connection with the Transit of Venus Expedition in 1874-75, describes it 

 in the following terms 2 : — 



" The climate of Kerguelen is tempestuous, chilly, and wet . . . gales, or at least strong breezes, 

 being almost constant. The wind is usually westerly and cold. . . . The range of temperature 

 throughout the year does not appear excessive, the highest readings of the thermometer in summer 

 being under 70° Fahr., and the lowest in winter seldom less than 32°. At Christmas Harbour it 

 did not descend below 27° during the stay of the 'Erebus.' Before the English expedition arrived 

 at the island, the Americans, early in September, found the temperature one night to be as low as 18". 

 In the warmer months the readings are not often much higher than 55° or 56°, or much lower than 

 42°, on the eastern side of the island. The western coast is, however, much more bleak." 



Considering the shortness of the stay of the expedition at Heard Island, Mr Moseley 

 has furnished us with a graphic account of its physical conditions, its flora, and its 

 fauna. True, both animal and vegetable life is little varied, but we learn from his 

 description of the island the reason why it is so. All that bears directly or indirectly on 

 the vegetation is contained in the following somewhat copious but intensely interesting 

 extracts from Mr Moseley's work 3 : — 



1 Called Yong Island by Mr Moseley in Journ. Linn. Soc. Lond., xiv. p. 388. 



2 Phil. Trails. Roy. Soc. Lond., cxlviii. p. 3. 



3 Notes by a Naturalist on the Challenger, p. 216. 



