218 FLORA ANTARCTICA. [Fitegia, the 



the name of Hazy Island lias been given to one of the largest, of which the rocky summit 

 alone is seen standing out in bold relief above an almost perennial fog-bank. During our 

 passage from the Cape of Good Hope to Kerguelen's Land, Sir James Ross endeavoured to 

 effect a landing, first upon Marion Island and afterwards upon one of the Crozets, but most 

 unfortunately for the interests especially of Botany, our efforts were frustrated by the tem- 

 pestuous weather. In one night, during which the ' Erebus ' was hove to for the purpose of 

 landing upon Marion Island, she was blown sixty miles to leeward of it ; she then bore up 

 for the Crozets, to meet a similar mishap ; on this occasion, having provisions to land for a 

 party of miserable sealers, we again beat up to Possession Island, the easternmost of the 

 group, and after the detention of nearly a week in the most inclement season and tempes- 

 tuous ocean, only arrived at the time of the brooding of another storm, which rendered it 

 highly imprudent for any boat to leave the ship in an open roadstead. The aspect of this 

 island was, like all the others we sighted, dreary and inhospitable to the last degree; a 

 narrow belt of green herbage skirted its shore, above a line of black basaltic cliffs, which 

 formed the iron-bound coast ; while higher again rose crater-shaped barren hills of blue-grey 

 or brick-red coloured rocks, utterly destitute of vegetation and alike dismal to the eye and 

 mind. These were the first Antarctic Islands we had seen, and few of us will forget the feel- 

 ings to which their desolate aspect gave rise ; sensations, which for intensity afford the strongest 

 contrast with those which an English naturalist never fads to experience during his first ramble 

 on some tropical shore. 



M. de Jussieu had the kindness to show me a small pamphlet, containing a slight account 

 of the Crozets, drawn up from information received through the captains of sealing ships. 

 The vegetation is described as most scanty. From the short interview which we held with 

 a party of sealers who had been left upon one of the group, I gleaned but little information ; 

 they told me the species were few, and the famous Cabbage of Kerguelen's Land not amongst 

 them, though another " scurvy-grass " was abundant. The vegetation that our glasses 

 enabled us to detect, formed, apparently, a matted carpet, extending from the shores upwards 

 for a short distance, very similar to what we afterwards saw in Kerguelen's Land, though dif- 

 ferent from the long grass that appeared to clothe Prince Edward's Island. These two groups 

 are situated only S00 miles south-east from the Cape of Good Hope, but being placed to the 

 southward of the 40th degree of latitude they partake of the climate of the Antarctic Ocean. 

 Their position between Euegia and Kerguelen's Land and their formation being probably 

 the same as the latter, I have httle doubt their Flora, when known, will be found to prove 

 characteristic of the extreme south of America and in no degree similar to that of Africa, with 

 which they are even in closer proximity than is Tristan d'Acunha. Barren and inhospitable 

 as are the shores of these islands, there are no spots on the surface of the globe whose bota- 

 nical productions woidd be of greater interest to science, for then- vegetation is wholly un- 

 known, and is wanting to complete our otherwise pretty extensive acquaintance with the 

 distribution of plants throughout the islands of the high southern latitudes. 



