164 Dr. Hooker's Flora Antarctica. 



of Magalhaens. from whence they are only three hundred miles 

 distant. The most evident causes of the absence of trees in the 

 Falkland Islands are the dislocation or removal of that group from 

 the main land ; their comparatively plane surface, every where 

 exposed to the violence of westerly gales ; and more especially to 

 the rapid evaporation and sudden changes in temperature, and in 

 other meteorological phenomena. The southerly and westerly 

 winds are violent, cold, and often accompanied by heavy snow- 

 storms ; the easterly and northerly arrive saturated with warmer 

 sea vapors, which, quickly condensing over the already chilled sur- 

 face of the soil, form fogs and mists that intercept the sun's rays; 

 while the northwesterly winds are singularly dry and parching, 

 from the influence of the Patagonian plains over which they blow. 

 Such sudden alternations from heat to cold, and from damp to dry, 

 are particularly inimical to luxuriant vegetation, and no foliage but 

 perhaps the coriaceous growth of Australia could endure them. * * 



"In January, 1843, I landed upon a small islet, close to the 

 main portion of Palmer's Land, in latitude 64° 12' S. and longi- 

 tude 57° W. It appeared to be the ■ Ultima Thule' of southern 

 vegetation ; the soil hard frozen, except on the very surface, 

 where it was thawed by a sun-heat which raised the temperature 

 to 46°, while the sea was encumbered with pack-ice and bergs. 

 No flowering plants were to be seen, and only eighteen belonging 

 to the orders Lichens, Musci and Algm* Beyond this latitude, I 

 believe there is no terrestrial vegetation. 3 ' 



We add a portion of the remarks upon Kerguelen's Land, 

 which, though lying within the 50th degree of latitude, appears 

 well to deserve its synonyme of the "Isle of Desolation." 



" The island presents a black and rugged mass of sterile moun- 

 tains, rising by parallel steps one above another in alternate slopes 

 and precipices, terminating in frightful, naked and frowning cliffs 

 which dip perpendicularly into the sea. The snows lying upon 

 these slopes between the black cliffs gave a most singularly striped 

 appearance to the whole country, each band indicating a flow 

 of volcanic matter; for the island is covered with craters whose 

 vents have given issue to stream upon stream of molten rock. 

 These are all worn along the coasts into abrupt escarpements, ren- 

 dering a landing impracticable except at the heads of the sinuous 

 bays. One bluff headland to the north of the island is a preci- 

 pice seven hundred feet high, and exposes such numerous sections 

 of horizontal deposits of red, black, and gray volcanic matter 

 that it is difficult to count them, though overlaying one another 

 with perfect regularity and uniformity. Sterile as Kergucleirs 

 Land now is, it was not always so. Vast beds of coal are cover- 

 ed by hundreds of consecutive layers of igneous and other rocks, 

 piled to a height of 1000 feet and upwards upon what was once 

 a luxuriant forest. Throughout many of the lava-streams an 



