Voyage of Capt. Sir James C. Ross to the Antarctic. 29 



Feb. 28.— The ships were in lat. 70° 54' S. and long 175° 36', 

 and the crew were in perfect health notwithstanding the severity 

 of the service which they had performed. 



March 1, 1842. — The attempt to reach a higher southern lati- 

 tude being relinquished, the vessels sailed for the Falkland Islands. 



In lat. 69° 52 / S., long. 180°, they passed a chain of the most 

 magnificent bergs they had yet seen ; they were of a blue color 

 and much worn by the action of the sea. Some hundreds of 

 seals were plunging and splashing about, and two or three on a 

 point of ice maintained their position with much difficulty as the 

 waves broke over them. 



The sea had assumed its oceanic blue color, free from the ferru- 

 ginous tinge of the animalcules which give a dirty brown tint to 

 the waters of the southern ocean, whose frigid temperature they 

 appear to prefer. 



March 5. — They passed the Antarctic circle after being sixty- 

 four days to the south of it, and two days later, several pieces of 

 sea weed gave them the first returning notice of the vegetable 

 kingdom in lat. 64° S. 



On the 16th of April the ships dropped anchor in St. Louis, 

 the principal port of the Falkland Islands. 



The three succeeding chapters of this work, covering eighty 

 pages, are engrossed by the Falklands and by Cape Horn, Fuegia 

 and its inhabitants, and by other topics which have been so fully 

 reported in the narratives of the Adventure and Beagle, and of the 

 American Exploring Expedition, that we pass them by with only 

 a few notices. The wild cattle of the Falklands and their im- 

 portant relation to the supply of ships, give a principal interest to 

 this group of cold and stormy islands. The hunting of these 

 powerful, courageous and savage animals, is a highly exciting and 

 dangerous employment carried on principally t>y the Gauchoes 

 or original natives of the islands. 



The provision of nature for the support of the cattle is remark- 

 able, especially in the tussock grass of which Dr. Hooker the bot- 

 anist of the expedition has given a very interesting account. 

 The tussock grass contains a sweet edible core which will sus- 

 tain human life. 



. These islands are rich in certain families of plants. The 

 lichens are very abundant and conspicuous. Sea weeds abound 

 on the rocky coast. An enormous mass of marine vegetation is 

 cast upon the shores, chiefly the Macrocystis pyrifera, Lcssonim, 

 and D'Urvillcza utilis. Wrenched from the rocks and twisted 

 together by the rolling surf, they form enormous vegetable cables 

 ttiuch thicker than the human body and several hundred feet in 

 length. The Lessonia is like a small tree eight or ten feet high ; 

 the stem is as large as a man's thigh, the leaves are two or three 

 feet long and three inches broad, and when in the water they 



