Chnp. v] INACCESSIBLE IST,AND. 99 



Inaccessible Island, October 16th, 1873.— The ship moved 

 over to Inaccessible Island and kept close under its high cliffs 

 all night. 



Inaccessible Island lies W. by S. ^ S. of Tristan, distant 

 about 23 miles, i.e., from the Peak of Tristan to the centre of 

 Inaccessible Island. The island is about 4^ miles in length, 

 from east to west, and about 2 miles broad, 4 square miles in 

 area. The highest point of the island is 1,840 feet in altitude. 

 We anchored on the north-east side. 



All night the penguins were to be heard screaming on shore ^ 

 and about the ship, and as parties of them passed by, they left 

 vivid phosphorescent tracks behind them as they dived through j 

 the water alongside. 



In the morning we had a view of the island. It presented 

 on this side a range of abrupt cliffs, about 1,000 feet in height, 

 of much the same structure as those of Tristan, viz., successive 

 layers of basalt, traversed by vertical or oblique dykes, but 

 mostly by narrow vertical ones. At the foot of the cliffs are 

 some very steep debris slopes extending in one place a long 

 way up the cliff, but not so as to render the ascent possible. 



In front of these stretches a strip of narrow uneven ground, 

 formed of large detached rocks and detritus from the cliffs 

 above, which terminates seawards in a beach of black boulders 

 and large pebbles. In one place, where the cliff is somewhat 

 lower than elsewhere, there is a waterfall, which at the time of 

 our visit was scantily supplied with water, but from the marks 

 left by it on the rocks and vegetation, evidently attains much 

 greater dimensions in rainy weather. The cascade pours right 

 down from the high cliff above into a dark pool of peaty water 

 on the beach below. The rocks about its course are covered 

 with mosses and green incrusting plants. 



The face of the cliff generally is sprinkled over with green, 

 the vegetation consisting principally of tussock grass {Sparttna 

 arundinacea), Apiuni graveokns (a small sedge), Sonchus olera- 

 ceus (Sow thistle), Rumex (Dock), and ferns : with dark green 

 patches of Phylica arborea on the debris slopes and ledges. 

 The strip of accessible lower shore land is mostly covered with 

 a dense growth of tall grass, called by the Tristan people 

 " tussock," but quite different in structure from the well-known 

 tussock of -the Falklands, though in outward habit resembling 

 it very closely. 



Amongst the grass are several patches or small coppices of 

 Phylica arborea trees, which keep the ground beneath them 

 free from tussock, it being covered instead with a thick growth 

 of sedges, ferns, and mosses, which form an elastic carpet on 

 the dark peaty soi!.. Amongst the moss creeps Nertera depressa. 



