THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 77 



peeps forth from its hole, or the traveller stumbles over a 

 huge sea-lion stretched along the ground, blocking up his 

 path." There is perhaps " no Grass likely to yield nearly so 

 great an amount of nourishment as the Tussock, and cattle 

 are excessively fond of it." There are specimens of it in the 

 Royal Gardens of Kew, but it grows so slowly that it will 

 be long (if ever we do) before we see fields of Tussock-grass 

 in England. In the Shetland and Orkney Islands however, 

 where it has been introduced, it thrives well, and seems to 

 have found a congenial home. 



" Bogs and damp woods in Britain very frequently pro- 

 duce a Sedge (Carex paniculata}, whose mode of growth is, 

 on a small scale, identical with that' of the Tussock-grass, 

 and to which the name of Tussock is applied. In South 

 Wales they may be met with two or three feet above the 

 ground ; and if they were higher, larger, and placed close 

 together, the general resemblance would be complete." 



The Balsam-bog (the other characteristic plant) is thus 

 described: (Plate V.) "At first its appearance is that of 

 a little herb, densely tufted, its stems radiating on every 

 side, all of the same length, and covered with leaves, so that 

 it takes the shape of a ball ; when still larger, it assumes 

 the shape of a hemispherical cushion rising out of the 



