1 68 kerguelen's land. 



Both animals may abound in parts of Marion Island not visited 

 by us. 



A wingless gnat i^Halyritus amphibius) also inhabits the 

 sea-shore, living among the seaweed constantly wetted by the 

 tide. I discovered at the Falkland Islands a similar wingless 

 gnat, and a fly which I believe to be closely allied to the 

 Kerguelen Ama/opieryx, and which thus adds to those already 

 known * a further interesting link between the forms of life 

 inhabiting these widely separated islands. 



I mounted up the slope towards Table Mountain. The 

 climb is up a succession of steps, the successive flat ledges 

 presenting glaciated surfaces scattered over with stones fallen 

 from above. The thick rank vegetation ceases at about 300 

 feet altitude, and then becomes more sparse. Colobanthus 

 kerguele/isis, a caryophyllaceous plant, peculiar to Kerguelen's 

 Land and Heard Island, affects the more barren stony ground 

 at this elevation, and I did not meet with it anywhere about 

 the lower slopes, or amongst the peaty soil. At Heard Island 

 it grows at sea-level. 



At about 500 feet elevation, a very handsome lichen {Neiio- 

 pogon Taylori) commences rather abruptly. It is a very con- 

 spicuous plant, being of a mingled bright sulphur-yellow and 

 black colour, and of large size. It is abundant on the higher 

 rocks everywhere. Azorella and the cabbage grow up to 

 about 1,000 feet, the height of the ridge from which the 

 rocky mass forming the top of Table Mountain rises. Here 

 the cabbage ceases, but Azorella is continued in very small 

 quantities to the top of the mountain, growing on its very 

 summit, but only in very sheltered corners between rocks and 

 much dwarfed. 



Azorella, the cabbage, and a grass {Agrosfis antarctica), 

 were the only flowering plants growing at 1,000 feet, and these 

 only very sparsely. The land at this height presented a series 

 of ridges of barren rock and piles of stones. At Mutton Cove 

 and about Royal Sound, a very marked line, at about 1,000 

 feet, separates the green lower slopes from the barren stony 

 ridges and peaks above. It is probably the line above which 

 snow lies for the greater part of the year unmelted, though the 



* See Rev. E. H. Eaton. " Breves Dipterarum uaiusque Lepidopte- 

 rarum insulae Kerguelensis indigenarum diagnoses." The Entomologists' 

 Monthly Magazine, August, 1875, p. 58. 



C. O. Waterhouse, " On the Coleoptera of Kerguelen's Land." Ibid., p. 50. 



There are five genera of Diptera in the island (four of Muscidse, one of 

 Tipulidai), all cited as endemic in the southern islands. Possibly, however, 

 two of these occur in the Falkland Islands. The beetles are all apterous, 

 one having the elytra united. Two genera and all the species are 

 endemic. 



