194 A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER." 



spicuous plant, being of a mingled bright sulphur-yellow and 

 black colour, and of large size. It is abundant on the higher 

 rocks everywhere. Azorella and the cabbage grow up to about 

 1,000 feet, the height of the ridge from which the rocky mass 

 forming the top of Table Mountain rises. Here the cabbage 

 ceases, but Azorella is continued in very small quantities to the 

 top of the mountain, growing on its very summit, but only in 

 very sheltered corners between rocks and much dwarfed. 



Azorella, the cabbage, and a grass (Agrostis Antarctica), were 

 the only flowering plants growing at 1,000 feet, and these only 

 very sparsely. The land at this height presented a series of 

 ridges of barren rock and piles of stones. At Mutton Cove and 

 about Royal Sound, a very marked line, at about 1,000 feet, 

 separates the green lower slopes from the barren stony ridges 

 and peaks above. It is probably the line above which snow lies 

 for the greater part of the year unmelted, though the hills just 

 above it, at Mutton Cove, were quite free from snow at the time 

 of our visit. 



In a pool of water, on the summit of Table Mountain, I 

 found a quantity of specimens of a small Lmnbriculus, or allied 

 form of Annelid. 



The phonolith of which Table Mountain is composed, is full 

 of olivine crystals, occurring in large rounded masses as in the 

 Ardeche valley, and many other volcanic districts. 



A comparatively low ridge separates the head of Christmas 

 Harbour from the sea directly beyond. On a flat expanse of 

 this riclge are two small freshwater lakes, in which grow two 

 water plants, Limosella aquatica and Nitella Antarctica, both 

 widely spread plants, the first occurring, amongst other places, in 

 England ; and the second being very closely allied to a common 

 English species. 



I found Limosella aquatica only in these particular lakes, and 

 then only after a very long search, since it resembles extremely 

 closely, in its general appearance, when growing in masses, a Ra- 

 nunculus {Pi. Moscleyi, Hk.f), which grows with it in the water. 

 Above the lakes the ridge rises somewhat, and then ter- 

 minates in an inaccessible precipice fronting the sea, with short 

 talus slopes below, on which are rookeries of crested penguins. 



