HEAED ISLAND. 227 



of temperature, is the sea: and where the accumulated snow 

 inland, and its attendant mists, render the soil there barren. 



In East Greenland all phanerogamic water plants are absent, 

 because of the long freezing of the water in winter ; in the 

 southern islands there is a Limosella, and a large number of the 

 other Phanerogams seem to take on a special aquatic habit. 



To return to Heard Island. At Corinthian Bay large masses 

 of seaweeds were banked up on the sandy shore. I collected 

 eight species, which have been described by Prof. Dickie* 

 Amongst them were two new species, two which occur at 

 Kerguelen's Land, whilst the remainder occur in Puegia. The 

 main mass appeared considerably different from the masses of 

 algse found on the Kerguelen shore. Durvillcea utilis grew 

 attached to the rocks under the cliffs, but the kelp (Macrocystis 

 jpirifera) does not grow at all about this group of islands, 

 according to the sealers, which is a remarkable fact, in con- 

 sideration of its great abundance at Kerguelen's Land. 



The sealers said that the climate of Heard Island was far 

 more rigorous than that of Kerguelen's Land. In winter the 

 whole of the ground is frozen, and the streams are stopped, so 

 that snow has to be melted in order to obtain water. In 

 December, at Midsummer, there is plenty of sunshiny weather, 

 and Big Ben is often to be seen. It is possible to land in whale 

 boats, on the average of the whole year only once in three days, 

 so surf-beaten is the shore, so stormy the weather. 



We saw six sealers ; two were Americans, and two Portu- 

 guese from the Cape Verde Islands. They were left on the 

 island by the whaling vessels which we met with at Kerguelen's 

 Land, their duty being to hunt Sea-Elephants. The men engage 

 to remain three years on the island, and see the whale ships 

 only for a short time in the spring of each year. 



On the more exposed side of the island there is an extensive 

 beach, called Long Beach. This is covered over with thousands 

 of Sea-Elephants in the breeding season, but it is only accessible 

 by land, and then only by crossing two glaciers or " ice-bergs " 

 as the sealers call them. ISTo boat can live to land on this shore, 

 consequently men are stationed on the beach, and live there in 



* "Journal of the Linn. Soc," Vol. XV, p. 73. 



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