ON COLLECTING AT CAPE ROYDS 5 



On the triangular promontory no moss or lichen wai ever found. Higher up 

 among the moraines on the slopes of Erebus dwarfed tufts of moss were fairly 

 abundant, but so feeble is their growth that M. Cardot,* who examined them, 

 describes them as "sickly plants, struggling painfully against exceptionally hard 

 conditions." Lichens were more abundant, though scarcely more vigorous in their 

 growth, and there were more kinds of them. The commonest was a pretty orange- 

 coloured kind, closely encrusting the rocks, and crowded with apothecia. The Tripe 

 de Roche, familiar in books of Arctic travel for its role in prolonging the lives of 

 starving explorers, occurred in two forms. Its little scales, some half-inch in diameter, 

 and attached by a single point on the under surface, were scarcely so abundant as to 

 fulfil the same life-saving role in the Antarctic. The largest-growing lichen was a 

 tufted kind, growing to an inch or more in height, and resembling Usnea in possess- 

 ing a fragile cortex, which breaks on pulling the stalks and exposes a tougher elastic 

 medullary portion. The Tripe de Roche and the tufted lichen could be picked off the 

 rocks, but most of the other kinds could only be collected by selecting conveniently 

 small stones on which they were growing. When the snow completely melted from 

 some of the moraines in the height of summer, patches of the tufted species were 

 found a yard or more in diameter. 



In the valley bottoms, where water had run or at least percolated in summer, 

 there was a faint scum of green, which consisted generally of dried -up green algae. 

 On some parts of the moraines, where there was some depth of soft soil, considerable 

 masses occurred of a plant which seems to be identical with that which abounds in 

 the lakes, and which will be more fully studied when dealing with them. It is of a 

 whitish, yellowish, or pink colour, and is in sheets like thin paper, superposed to form 

 masses of considerable thickness. In some eskers on Blue Lake it was traced to a 

 depth of several feet, and on some flat moraines it was discovered occupying pockets 

 underground. In all cases when found on land the plant was friable and had a 

 bleached appearance. From this fact it is doubtful if it ever grew in the kind of 

 situation it now occupies. It may have been preserved from a time when these 

 were parts of lake bottoms. 



Collecting in the Lakes. Soon after landing at Cape Royds, on walking across 

 the lake afterwards called Green Lake, some thin films of vegetation of a dull green 

 colour were seen projecting above the surface of the ice. Shortly afterwards Wild 

 found pieces of a similar plant, but of pink or brown colour, exposed on the surface 

 of Clear Lake. At the margin of Clear Lake, where the ice was transparent, the 

 same plant was seen at a depth of about a foot, of much brighter colour than that 

 exposed at the surface. Pieces of this were cut out with an ice-pick, and taken 

 home and melted, when several microscopic animals were found. 



This was the introduction to the most prolific source of fresh-water life in the 

 district. The plant was found embedded in the ice of nearly all the lakes, and when 



* " Musci," by J. Cardot, in Part IV. of this volume. 



