356 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



eight successive years. The Cabbage about Christmas Harbour was either in flower or 

 green fruit, mostly the latter ; it was only to the south of the island, about Royal 

 Sound, that ripe seed was met with, but there, especially at Mutton Cove, it was 

 abundant. This Cabbage, which like the familiar vegetable is a Cruciferous plant, is 

 peculiar to the Prince Edward, Crozet, Kerguelen, and Heard Islands, and belongs to a 

 genus with no near ally (see PL XVI.). 



The ascent of the slope towards Table Mountain 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 kerguelensis, a Caryophyllaceous plant, peculiar to Kerguelen 

 and Heard Islands, affects the more barren stony ground at this elevation, whilst at 

 Heard Island it grows at the sea level. At about 500 feet elevation, a very handsome Lichen 

 {Neuropogon taylori) commences rather abruptly ; it is a very conspicuous plant, being 

 of a mingled bright sulphur-yellow and black colour, of large size, and is abundant 

 everywhere on the higher rocks. Azorella and the Cabbage grow up to about 1000 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 the rocks, and much dwarfed. Azorella, the Cabbage, and a Grass (Agrostis 

 magellanica), were the only flowering plants growing at 1000 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 1000 

 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 hills just above it, at Mutton Cove, were quite free from snow at the time of the visit. 



A comparatively low ridge separates the head of Christmas Harbour from the sea 

 directly beyond. On a flat expanse of this ridge are two small freshwater lakes, in which 

 grow two water plants, Limosella aquatica and Nitella antarctica, both widely spread 

 plants, the first occurring, amongst other places, in England, and the second being very 

 closely allied to a common English species. 



Crawling about the heart of the Cabbages, and sheltering there, are to be found 

 swarms of the curious wingless Fly (Calycopteryx moseleyi), likewise peculiar to Kerguelen 

 Island and the other localities where the Cabbage is found. It is simply a long-legged 

 brown dipterous Fly, with very minute rudimentary wings, and crawls about lazily on 

 the Cabbage. Another dipterous Fly (Amalojrteryx maritima), with wings rudimentary 

 but larger in proportion to the body than in the other, is found among the rocks on 

 the sea shore, where it jumps about when hunted, like a small grasshopper. It is the 

 same as was found by Dr v. Willemoes Suhm at Marion Island. Probably the Caly- 

 copteryx exists also at Marion Island, but Cabbages were not abundant there, and it was 



