2 JAMES MURRAY 



Koyds. Those who went on the long sledging journeys brought back specimens from 

 more distant points. Mr. Shackleton brought lake vegetation and Joyce brought moss 

 from Hut Point (the Discovery's winter quarters, twenty miles south of Cape Royds) ; 

 Priestley brought rotifers, mosses, lichens, and some marine organisms from the 

 neighbourhood of the Ferrar Glacier and the Stranded Moraines, when he visited the 

 west with Armytage's party ; and Brocklehurst on the same journey obtained some 

 lichens at an elevation of about 4000 feet at New Harbour Heights ; David brought 

 moss and lichen from near Cape Irizar, the most distant point from our camp at which 

 any biological specimens were collected. So far as known, the species were the same 

 in all the localities. 



The promontory of Cape Boyds, round which most of the collecting was done, is a 

 hilly tract of triangular form, separated from the main mass of Mount Erebus by a 

 valley in which there is a series of small lakes, and terminating at its southernmost 

 point in a bluff rising vertically from the sea to a considerable height. This culminat- 

 ing-point of the Cape was familiarly known as Flagstaff Point, from a pole which we 

 erected there for the purpose of signalling to the ship. In the hollow between it and 

 the hut was Pony Lake, and between the lake and the shore was the rookery of 

 Adelie Penguins. 



The triangular area is just about a mile in length and half a mile in greatest breadth. 

 It includes many little sharp rocky peaks, composed of kenyte, with ridges of the same 

 rock diverging from the peaks. The valleys are filled with a gravelly debris resulting 

 from the decomposition of the kenyte, and contain many little lakes or ponds. Con- 

 siderable stretches of morainic material occur. The highest point of land is no more 

 than 300 feet above the sea. The greater part of the shore-line consists of low cliffs 

 with a few small patches of sandy beach. The most extensive of these beaches, known 

 as Black Sand Beach, is about a mile to the north of the hut. 



On the shore there is no vestige of marine life, animal or vegetable, such as is 

 found in the littoral zone of other coasts. The beaches are formed of a coarse, hard, 

 black sand, with boulders of kenyte and other rocks. The presence of an ice-foot 

 throughout the greater part of the year, and the grinding of ice along the coast when 

 there is open sea, must destroy any living things which attempt to establish them- 

 selves. The zone thus kept devoid of life is of no great depth. Standing on the 

 edge of the ice-foot at Black Sandy Beach, when the Sound was open, various living 

 things could be seen at a depth of from one to two fathoms. Starfish were commonest 

 in this situation, but a living Pecten Colbecki was got in equally shallow water at 

 Back-door Bay. 



The larger lakes were given distinguishing names. Pony Lake, close beside the 

 hut, formed the exercising ground for the ponies during the long night. A short 

 distance to the north was Green Lake, named from the colour of its ice. A mile north 

 of the hut and close to the shore was Coast Lake, remarkable for its level smooth 

 ice, which would have served for skating and curling. Close by was Clear Lake, named 



