Bd. IV: 12) 



THE VEGETATION IN SOUTH GEORGIA. 



There is scarcely any foreland at all; low land is found only in narrow strips 

 round the fjords and has been formed partly by the action of ice (see below). The 

 rock consists of hard, crystalline slates of a dark grey or nearly black colour. Frost- 

 weathering is great, but owing to the cold climate as well as the kind of rock 

 descomposition forming a humus layer is slight, if any. The lower mountain sides 

 are covered with debris of stones and innumerable places are so steep that slips often 

 occur. Most of the finer material is carried away by the water. 



It is only thanks to the action of ice during the glaciation that round the fjords, 

 especially in their exterior parts, conditions for plant life are better. Through the 

 investigations of Dr. J. G. ANDERSSON, of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition, we 

 know that two different glaciations can be traced with certainty, one, the earlier one, 



Fig. 1. 



nearly complete and one, a later, during which the fjords were filled up to their 

 mouths by glaciers. When the ice withdrew for the last time, it left behind a sub- 

 stantial morainic cover in the valleys close to coast. Much of it, and especially 

 all the finer material, has since been washed away from all steep slopes and is only 

 left on the low land round coves and inlets, where plants could appear and form 

 close communities. Thus plant-cover is practically confined to those insignificant 

 areas of low, moraine-covered ground. 



A large area of the island is still glaciated. The inland ice does not form an 

 ice-cap as on many of the small islands hear the Antarctic continent, but is of an 

 Alpine type. Large glaciers descend into the valleys and reach the sea in the bot- 

 tom of the fjords. 



