ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW. 



BULLETIN 



OF 



MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 



No. 6.] 



[1908. 



XXXI.-THE SOUTHERN ISLANDS EXPEDITION. 



The expedition, undertaken by New Zealand scientists, to the 

 Auckland and Campbell Islands, which left New Zealand on 

 November 14th, 1907, returned in safety at the beginning of 

 December. It was carried out by the Government, with the 

 advice of the Council of the Canterbury Philosophic Society, 

 and appears to have met with considerable success, as will be seen 

 from the following accounts : — 



Dr. L. Cockayne, Naturalist of the Expedition, communicated 

 an account of the Islands to " The Lyttelton Times," of November 

 6th, 1907, part of which is here reproduced. 



"Rising out of that vast expanse of stormy ocean which 

 surrounds the iceclad Antarctic continent are several small 

 groups of islands, tiny specks indeed upon the map. The 

 principal of these — the Falklands, South Georgia, the Crozets, 

 Kerguelen Land and the southern islands of New Zealand — 

 though at most mere names to the majority, are of surprising 

 interest to the scientific, presenting as they do many problems for 

 elucidation, full of fascination but of extreme difficulty. Of 

 greater extent, but having many biological features in common 

 with the above, are Tierra del Fuego and South America 

 west of the Andes as far north as and including the Chronos 

 Archipelago. 



" Now, although in the Northern Hemisphere, a fairly abundant 

 vegetation of* flowering plants exists beyond the Arctic Circle, the 

 Antarctic is practically without plant-life except seaweeds and a 

 few mosses and lichens ; the above-mentioned islands, though 

 lying for the most part at the same distance from the equator as 

 Great Britain, marking, with a few trifling exceptions, the 

 southern limit of the higher plants. Still more remarkable is it 

 that, though separated from one another by thousands of miles of 

 ocean, they have no small number of species in common. The 

 earthworms of our southern islands are closely related to those of 



" ~ ~ " ~ "a ; the wet coastal rocks of Antipodes 



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