62 STATEN-LAND AND 
sels take in cargoes of sandal-wood in the South- 
Sea Islands, for which they also find a good 
market in China, where it is in great estima- 
tion; others pursue the spermaceti whale in the 
neighbourhood of Cape Horn, and carry on an 
important traffic in this article. 
On the morning of the 23d of December, we 
saw in the distance the snow-covered points of 
the mountains in the dreaded Staten-land. A 
fresh breeze carried us so near to this inhos- 
pitable and desolate island, that we could 
plainly distinguish the objects on it, even with- 
out a telescope. What a contrast to the beauty 
of Brazil! There nature seems inexhaustible 
in her splendour and variety; here she has 
sparingly allowed a thin clothing of moss to the 
lofty masses of black rock. Seldom do the sun’s 
rays lighten this or the neighbouring island of 
Terra del Fuego. Vegetation is so blasted by 
the perpetual cold and fogs, that a few miserable 
stunted trees can scarcely find subsistence at 
the foot of the mountains. The sea-birds avoid 
these barren shores; the very insects disdain 
them; the dog, the faithful companion of man, 
and man himself, the inhabitant of every cli- 
