TUSSOCK GRASS ON PEAT ISLAND. 109 



place, it was discovered that the beast had ver}^ 

 prudently g-ot out of the way, nor this morning- 

 could he be found by a person who went to make a 

 second search. 



On this — Peat Islet of the chart — the tussock 

 g-rass g'rows in g'reat luxuriance, and to a stranger 

 presents a most sing-ular appearance. Its clusters of 

 stems — frequently upwards of a hundred or more 

 in a bunch— are raised from the ground upon a 

 densely matted mass of old and decayed roots, two 

 or three feet high, from the summit of which the 

 leaves, frequently six feet in length, arch gracefully 

 outwards. The tussock grass has been likened to a 

 palm on a small scale, but altogether it reminded 

 me more of the Xanthorhoea, or grass-tree of Aus- 

 tralia. We saw many seals swimming about among 

 the kelp, and on the shore found the carcases of 

 several which had lately been killed with clubs, each 

 of the skulls having been fractured by a blow at the 

 root of the nose. They were of the kind known 

 here as the hair-seal, the skin of Avhich is of little 

 value. It is still very abundant ; but the fur-seal, 

 from the indiscriminate slaughter of old and young 

 for many years back has become scarce, and is now 

 confined to a few favourite localities — rookeries as 

 they are called, a name also applied at the Falk- 

 lands to any great breeding place of penguins or 

 other sea fowl. A few days ago a party of five 

 sealers returned to the settlement after a short 



