Bd. IV: 12) THE VEGETATION IN SOUTH GEORGIA. 13 



VI. Short notes on the different localities visited and on the general 



distribution of vegetation. 



(Fig. 2; Plate i.) 



1. Cumberland Bay, West Fjord. 



Jason Harbour. Generally the north coast, where this cove is situated, pre- 

 sents rather scanty vegetation. On the steep mountain-sides, which are exposed 

 towards the S., patches of tundra with scattered tufts of grasses are seen, and Poa 

 flabellata forms an irregular strap of green along the water. The aspect of the 

 cove itself is somewhat varied, for there is a strip of hilly lowland left between the 

 beach and the rising mountains. Along the shore, at least where there is a beach 

 of shingle or sand, a beautiful /W-association extends. This tussock-edge is very 

 narrow, often only some meters broad, or extends over the nearest hill-sides, and 

 climbs the mountain-slopes in favorable places. Where the distance from the water 

 to the slopes is greater Rostkovia-swsxaçs cover the ground in the depressions 

 between the hills, whose sides are clothed with a dense carpet of Acaena adscendeus. 

 All steep, well-watered slopes present this vegetation, sometimes mixed with grasses 

 that close together higher up, going to form what I shall describe below as the 

 tundra-meadow. The aspect of this association varies a good deal according to the 

 part played by peat-forming mosses. 



The slopes are furrowed hy a number of small streams, visible from a great 

 distance owing to the emerald-green, luxuriant moss-carpet fringing them. 



Here, as in most places, the low, level beach does not form one continous 

 border, but spurs of the surrounding mountains come down to the water, ending 

 in steep cliffs that have their special vegetation, scattered tufts of the tussock-grass, 

 patches of petrophilous mosses and the hard cushions of Colobantlms subulatus. 



The interior of the West Fiord. In the bottom of this inlet three glaciers, 

 Neumayer, Geikie and Lyell G., reach the sea. The two first-mentioned are separated 

 by a steep point, where some tussock was seen; between the Geikie and Lyell gla- 

 ciers a large tongue of morainic deposits, forming a level plain, rests against the 

 coast-cliff. This plain is watered by melting snow from the mountain behind and 

 seems very moist; near the beach is a belt of tundra-meadow with scattered phanero- 

 gams, but most of the space is covered by a Po/ytrichum-tunàra. The place is ex- 

 tremely windy. No tussock-grass was seen save for a small patch on the top of a 

 moraine ridge. 



