482 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



glaciers, which, have scooped out deep trouglis in the less compact argillaceous 

 masses, while leaving intact the peaks and headlands of harder gneiss formation. 

 Frontal moraines are seen at the issue of the valleys formerl}^ filled with, crj'^stal 

 streams. 



The Hoss glacier, whose broken fragments float away across Roj^al Bay, is 

 developed in a basin at least 50 square miles in extent. The lower limit of 

 persistent snow descends to about 2,000 feet above sea-level. 



The snowy peaks and headlands of South Georgia are constantly shrouded in 

 fogs, and snow frequently falls even in February, the warmest month in the year. 

 No tree grows in the island, and the German naturalists were unable to collect 

 more than thirteen species of flowering plants ; of these all but one are also found 

 in the neighbouring Falklands and in Fuegia. The thirteenth belongs to the 

 flora of distant New Zealand. 



Mosses clothe all the inland plateaux and all the slopas facing the northern 

 sun, while the rocky escarpments turned towards the south pole are destitute of 

 vegetation. These mosses of the insular flora, which resemble the arctic forms, 

 impart to South Georgia a physiognomy quite distinct from that of the other 

 South American lands. 



The fauna of the island comprises, besides various species of penguins, a soli- 

 tary songster, a member of the lark family. 



South Georgia lies under the same latitude as Tierra del Fuego, that is to say, 

 considerably nearer to the antarctic circle than the Falklands. Its position is 

 also far more isolated in ihe midst of the South Atlantic waters, remote from all 

 the great highways of navigation, some 1,250 miles east of Magellan Strait, and 

 in the direct track of the antarctic polar current. Hence the mean temperature 

 is several degrees lower than that of Ushuia on Beagle Channel in Fuegia. 



Nevertheless, the moist, stormy climate, being somewhat equable,, is believed to 

 be suitable for sheep farming, like that of the Fcdklands. The same nourishing 

 tussock grass also grows up to an altitude of 1,000 feet. But on the other hand 

 few settlers are likely to be attracted to such a dreary abode, a storm-tossed rocky 

 prison, lost in the waste of waters on the verge of the habitable globe. 



Farther south towards the antarctic pole, the southern seas, with their convoys 

 of huge icebergs, sweep round the planetary surface, awaiting the future Scoresbys 

 and Nansens, who ai'e to lift the veil now concealing the m3'steries of those 

 unexplored solitudes. 



