538 A NATURALIST ON THE " CHALLENGER." 



remarkable, for the cup-shaped sori hang down from the fronds 

 in masses, looking just like bunches of millet seed. 



Everywhere for the first few hundred feet, trees are absent, 

 the wood having been all felled. In 1830 a large quantity of 

 dry old sandal- wood still remained in the valleys : but even 

 then there were no growing sandal-wood trees remaining.* No 

 doubt the general appearance of the vegetation is very different 

 now from what it was when the island was first visited. 



I landed and climbed with a guide a steep path leading 

 directly up from the Bay to Selkirk's Monument. The island is 

 rented from the Chilian Government as a farm by a Chilian 

 who employs a number of labourers and rears cattle, and grows 

 vegetables, doing a very fair trade with passing vessels, the 

 crews of which, like our own, after a voyage from such a port as 

 Tahiti, long for a little wholesome fresh food. A considerable 

 sum is also realized by the sale of the skins of the Fur-Seals. 

 Close to the farm-house at the Bay still remain a row of old 

 caves dug out in the hill-side by the Buccaneers. 



In ascending the path the first tree was met with at about 

 700 feet altitude, all below had been cut down. We passed 

 through a hollow overgrown by a dense growth of the gigantic 

 Ehubarb-like G-unnera Chilensis. Darwin remarked on the large 

 size of the leaves of this plant and height of its stalks as seen 

 by him in Chile.f The stalks of the plants he saw were not 

 much more than a yard in height. In this hollow the stalks 

 must have been 7 feet in height. We walked through a narrow 

 passage cut in a thicket of them with the huge circular leaves 

 above our heads. The leaves catch and hold a large quantity of 

 rain-water. The size attained by the Gunnera varies with its 

 situation. In many places the leaves are very conspicuous on 

 the hill-slopes, crowding closely as an undergrowth, and not 

 rising high above the ground. 



It was now Spring in Juan Fernandez, as at Tahiti. Most 

 excellent Strawberries grow wild about the lower slopes of the 



* "Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of H.M.S. ' Adventure ' and 

 'Beagle,'" Vol. I, p. 302. London, 1839. Visit of Capt. King, H.M.S. 

 ' Adventure ' accompanied by Signor Bertero the Botanist, Feb., 1833." 



t C. Darwin, "Journal of Researches," p. 279. 



