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Bd. IV: 12) THE VEGETATION IN SOUTH GEORGIA. 13 
VI. Short notes on the different localities visited and on the general 
distribution of vegetation. 
(Bierg2:7Platerm) 
ı.- Cumberland Bay, West Fjord. 
Jason Harbour. Generally the north coast, where this cove is situated, pre- 
sents rather scanty vegetation. On the steep mountain-sides, which are exposed 
towards the S., patches of tundra with scattered tufts of grasses are seen, and Poa 
Habellata forms an irregular strap of green along the water. The aspect of the 
cove itself is somewhat varied, for there is a strip of hilly lowland left between the 
beach and the rising mountains. Along the shore, at least where there is a beach 
of shingle or sand, a beautiful Poa-association extends. This tussock-edge is very 
narrow, often only some meters broad, or extends over the nearest hill-sides, and 
climbs the mountain-slopes in favorable places. Where the distance from the water 
to the slopes is greater Rostkovia-swamps cover the ground in the depressions 
between the hills, whose sides are clothed with a dense carpet of Acaena adscendeus. 
All steep, well-watered slopes present this vegetation, sometimes mixed with grasses 
that close together higher up, going to iorm what I shall describe below as the 
tundra-meadow. The aspect of this association varies a good deal according to the 
part played by peat-forming mosses. 
The slopes are furrowed hy a number of small streams, visible from a great 
distance owing to the emerald-green, luxuriant moss-carpet fringing them. 
Here, as in most places, the low, level beach does not form one continous 
border, but spurs of the surrounding mountains come down to the water, ending 
in steep cliffs that have their special vegetation, scattered tufts of the tussock-grass, 
patches of petrophilous mosses and the hard cushions of Colodanthus subulatus. 
The interior of the West Fiord. In the bottom of this inlet three glaciers, 
Neumayer, Geikie and Lyell G., reach the sea. The two first-mentioned are separated 
by a steep point, where some tussock was seen; between the Geikie and Lyell gla- 
ciers a large tongue of morainic deposits, forming a level plain, rests against the 
coast-cliff. This plain is watered by melting snow from the mountain behind and 
seems very moist; near the beach is a belt of tundra-meadow with scattered phanero- 
gams, but most of the space is covered by a Polytrichum-tundra. The place is ex- 
tremely windy. No tussock-grass was seen save for a small patch on the top of a 
moraine ridge. 
