The Antarctic 



From the graphic descriptions of Mr. Cockayne, the 

 Snares islands seem to be very peculiar. Where ex- 

 posed to the wind, the ground is covered by great 

 tussocks of a grass, Danthonia, which seems to form 

 its own peat apparently, like our cotton-grass. Where 

 there is some shelter, the ground is covered by scrub. 

 If it is of Suttonia divaricata, it may be as high as one's 

 waist. One can crawl underneath the branches or walk 

 over the top of them, or one may sit down and roll 

 over the tops of these shrubs. In getting to his camp 

 (only a mile away), from the top of a hill 700 feet high, 

 two and a half hours were occupied. 



On Ewing island, a regular forest of Olearia Lyallii 

 occurs. This has been destroyed in other places by a 

 better developed vegetation of Metrosideros lucida or 

 " rata." 



The enormous numbers of sea-birds insure a plentiful 

 manuring of the soil, and the wallowing of the sea-lions 

 has also greatly altered the vegetation. 



If one compares what vegetation has managed to do 

 in the Antarctic and in the Arctic, one cannot help an 

 impression that those beeches of the Southern Pole are 

 perhaps more efficient than the pines, spruce, and larch 

 which are the most northerly woods in the Northern 

 hemisphere. 



At any rate they are closer grown and accumu- 

 late more humus than the pinewoods of the North 

 (see p. 236). 



1 Hooker. - Chardot. "" Pnes. * Reiche. 



^ Weindorfer. ^ Cockayne. ' Arctowsky, Murray. 



107 



