116 A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER." 



Amongst the grass are several patches or small coppices of 

 Phylica arborea trees, which keep the ground beneath them free 

 from tussock, it being covered instead with a thick growth of 

 sedges, ferns, and mosses, which form an elastic carpet on the 

 dark peaty soil. Amongst the moss creeps Nertera depressa, 

 with its bright red berries, and the Potentilla-like Acama 

 ascendens grows here and there together with the "tea-plant'' 

 of the islanders. 



The stems and branches of the Phylica trees are covered with 

 lichens in tufts and variously coloured crusts, and the branches 

 of the trees meeting overhead these little islands as it were, in 

 the seas of tall grass, afford most pleasant shady retreats, which 

 seem a perfect paradise after the terrible struggle and fight 

 through the penguin rookery, which it is necessary to endure in 

 order to reach them. 



In the early morning, we made out with a glass two men 

 standing on the shore gazing at the ship. The Captain went on 

 shore first, and brought off the men, who proved to be the two 

 Germans we had heard of at Tristan da Cunha. They were 

 overjoyed at the chance of escape from the island; we gave 

 them breakfast, and heard something of their story. 



They both spoke English, one of them remarkably well. 

 They were brothers ; one of them had been an officer in the 

 German army during the war, the other one a sailor. They had 

 got landed at Inaccessible Island by a whaling vessel, in the 

 hopes that they would be able to make a considerable sum by 

 killing fur seals, and taking their skins. They had been bitterly 

 disappointed.* 



After breakfast, I landed with one of the Germans as guide 

 with a large party. We passed through a broad belt of water, 

 covered with the floating leaves of the wonderful seaweed 

 Macrocystis pirifera, which here, as at Tristan and Nightingale 

 Island, forms a sort of zone around the greater part of the 



* For an account of the sojourn of the Germans in the island, and 

 valuable particulars as to the habits of the various birds, see an article by 

 Mr. R Eichards, Paymaster, H.M.S. "Challenger," "Two Years on In- 

 accessible," in the "Cape Monthly Magazine," Dec, 1873. Cape Town, 

 J. C. Juta. 



