July 2, 1S74] 



NA rURE 



t65 



Longevity of the Carp 



Last autumn, being at Fontainebleau, I was told by the 

 servant of tlie Palace there that the Geimin soldiers while in 

 occupation of the place during the last war caught many of the 

 caq5 in the pond of the Palace garden called "Jardin Anglais," 

 and that some of these carp carried, attached by silver wire to 

 their gills, little silver plates bearing inscriptions purporting that 

 the plates were attaclied to the fish in the time of Francis I. and 

 Henry II. — /.(•. about 303 years ago. 



Some of your Germ in readers could easily ascertain by inquiry 

 o'' the corps in occupation whether such fish were in fact caught. 

 If it should turn out that they were, then, although the well- 

 ascertained proof desired by Mr. Sufheld (Nature, vol. x. p. 

 147) would not of course be given, yet the fact would be evidence 

 worth noting. F. G. 



Cannes, June 2S 



THE "CHALLENGER" EXPEDITION"^ 

 V. 



iNACCES.Sir.LE AND NIGHTINGALE ISLANDS 



IT' HE first of these islands, the area of which is about 

 -*■ four square miles, is situated about twenty-three 

 miles W. by S. of Tristan d'Acunha. The cliffs rise to 

 the height of about 1,000 feet in a perpendicular range on 

 the north-east side. Thie tract beneath the cliffs is covered 

 with debris of fallen rocks. On the cliffs themselves the 

 plants are similar to those found in the same situation in 

 Tristan. On the lower land are dense thickets of Sparlina 

 arnndiitacca Carm., a tall, reed-likc grass, which here 

 forms an extensive penguin rookery ; patches of Pliylica 

 arbon-a Th. also grow on the summits of slight elevations ; 

 and under the shelter of the cliffs the trees attain a height 

 of twenty feet, or even more. The trunks are seldom or 

 never straight, but mostly lean over, or become partly 

 procumbent, starting upright again towards the top. The 

 largest trunk seen by Mr. Moseley measured a foot in 

 diameter, but the trees on the upper plateau are said to 

 measure lSinchesacross,theydo not,however,growsohi£;h, 

 being stunted by the force of the gales. The wood of the 

 Phylica, though brittle, is said to ht useful when properly 

 dried, but in exposed situations it rapidly decays. Under- 

 neath the trees are ferns, mosses, and sedges, also Acaiui 

 sanguisorbiv- Vahl., the leaves of which are used in New 

 Zealand both as a tea and as a medicine. Cliciwpodiuin 

 toincittosum Th., the tea-plant of Tristan, also grows in 

 abundance, forming bushes with woody stems. A species of 

 Spltagnum, Carcx insularisQs.x'cn., and Hydrocotyle capi- 

 iata Th. .grew in a swamp near the penguin rookery. From 

 the two Germans who were discovered on the island a goo 1 

 deal of information was obtained about the vegetation, 

 more especially of that of the higher land, to which it 

 was found impracticable to ascend from the side of the 

 mountain where the ship anchored. The plants found there 

 weresimilar to those which grewbelow, but in addition grew 

 the species of I\mpctnim, found on the other islands, 

 Lomaria boryana Willd ., which in some instances attained 

 a height of four feet, Lycopodiiim insiilari: Carm ., and Lagc- 

 ttophora commcrsoiiii Cass., a small Composite plant with 

 a daisy-like flower. The Tussock grass, which appears 

 closely similar to Dactylis ccxspitosa Forst., of the Falk- 

 lands, grows in patches of considerable size on the upper 

 plateau, and straggles up the cliffs to the summit. Nertcra 

 dcpicssa Banks also grows on the plateau, and its berries 

 form a favourite food of the Nesocichla crcmita, the native 

 thrush of the Tristan group; while the Bunting (£■;«&;-/;?(! 

 l>rasiUcnsis\ feeds on the fruits of the Phylica. 



The two Germans had cultivated the ground in the neigh- 

 bourhood of their dwelling, growing potatoes, cabbages, 

 and other European vegetables. Two species of clover 

 also introduced by them were spreading rapidly, and a con- 

 volvulus was growing in quantity on tlie cultivated ground. 

 The other island of the Tristan group is named Nightin- 

 gale Island, and is distant i<y\ miles from Tristan 

 d'Acunha, and 12 miles from Inaccessible Island. It is, 



■^ These Notes .ire foinulcd on letters acldressetl to Dr. Hooker by Mr. H. 

 N. RIoscley. Comimied from vol. i.v. p. 4S6. 



comparatively speaking, a mere speck about one siprarc 

 mile in extent, and to the west are two small outlying 

 islands covered with Tussock grass. Arocky peak 1,100 ft. 

 high rises on the north side of Nightingale Island and is 

 continued into a ridge stretching across the island, a 

 valley separating this from a lower ridge which runs 

 nearly at right angles. On the lower tract Phylica arborca 

 occurs in patches, and on the high ground was seen Lyco- 

 podiiim insulare and a species of' Cotula different from 

 that found in Tristan and not seen at all in Inaccessible 

 Island. Sonchus olcraceiis L., which grows abundantly 

 on the other islands, is, together with several other plants, 

 absent fro.n this. The Tussock grass forms a dense 

 growth over nearly the whole island, growing in thick tufts 

 or clumps to a height of five or six feet, and so matted to- 

 gether near the base of the clumps as to be almost im- 

 penetrable. The abundant growth of this grass causes 

 the island to become an enormous penguin rookery, and 

 the thick deposit of the excrement of the birds imparts 

 a greater vigour to the plants, so that the lower parts or 

 bases of the clumps become of a peaty character, 

 beds several feet in thickness, of a bhck peaty richly- 

 manured soil, being thus formed. It was with the 

 greatest difficulty that a way was made through this 

 thicket, the grass being too high to allow the planning of 

 any definite track, and the screaming and biting of the 

 penguins, together with the stench from the thick deposit 

 of dung, being anything bat agreeable. Indeed Mr. 

 Moseley says that the specimens of Tussock grass which 

 he gathered on Inaccessible and Nightingale Islands 

 were lost in the continued fi^'ht with the penguins and the 

 long grass. In one place a quantity of the trees of Phylica 

 arborca hal been blown down by the wind, and the trunks 

 were lying dead on the ground. Lichens, as well as two 

 fungi, were found on these dead trunks. 



A dark green ulva forms a thin coat on the rocky 

 shelves of the coast near the caves of the seals, which, 

 when dry, as was the case during the Lhallcngo^s visit, 

 has a peculiar metallic appearance. The island is never 

 visited except during the sealing season. 



Though it has been stated that the vegetation of the 

 Tristan group knows no change of seasons, it is proved 

 that some of the plants mentioned in these notes have 

 their periods of flowering ; thus the Pelargonium is said 

 to flower in the middle of the summer, when a large number 

 of the flowering plants are at their best, and the shore is 

 covered with the fallen petals. At the time of the 

 Challenger's visit in October few plants were in flower, but 

 the phylica trees all bore fully developed green fruits. 



From the geological as well as the botanical similarity 

 of the three islands forming this interesting group, it 

 maybe surmised that a former connection existed between 

 them. The different currents which sweep the Tristan 

 group bring with them many foreign seeds, which are cast 

 up on the shore. Amongst them was seen those of Gui- 

 laiidiiia, which are so.netimes washed up on the Irish 

 coast by the Atlantic current. These seeds are known 

 in Tristan d'.Acunha, as well as in Bermuda, where they 

 arc also occasionally cast up, as the sea-bean, the popular 

 belief in the islands being that they are the seeds of a plant 

 which grows at the bottom of the sea. 



THE FIGURE OF THE EARTH IN RELATION 



TO GE0L09lCAL INQUIRY 

 ''PHE elevation and depression of different, parts of the 

 -'- surface of the earth above or below a mean ocean 

 level has frequently formed the subject of communications 

 to Nature, but in no instance, as far as I am aware, 

 have any of these changes been referred to the remarkable 

 shape of the equatorial circumference of the earth, and to 

 the changes which it is not improbable are constantly but 

 slowly taking place in the position of the major and minor 

 a.xes of the equatorial circumference. On p. gS of the 

 second edition of " The Heavens," by Amedee Guille- 



