VEGETATION—CLIMATE. 577 
the country and hills, from the height of two thousand feet above 
the sea, to the very verge of the high-water mark, are covered 
with a perpetual verdure which is remarkably striking, particularly 
in those places where the glaciers descend into the sea; the sud- 
den contrast in such cases presenting to the view a scene as agree- 
able as it seems to be anomalous. I have myself seen vegetation 
thriving most luxuriantly, and large woody-stemmed trees of 
Fuchsia and Veronica* (in England considered and treated as 
tender plants), in full flower, within a very short distance of the 
base of a mountain, covered for two-thirds down with snow, and 
with the temperature at 36°. The Fuchsia certainly was rarely 
found except in sheltered spots, but not so the Veronica; for the 
beaches of the bays on the west side of San Juan Island at Port 
San Antonio are lined with trees of the latter, growing even in the 
very wash of the sea. There is no part of the Strait more ex- 
posed to the wind than this, for it faces the reach to the west of 
Cape Froward, down which the wind constantly blows, and brings 
with it a succession of rain, sleet, or snow; and in the winter 
months, from April to August, the ground is covered with a layer 
of snow, from six inches to two or three feet in depth. 
There must be, therefore, some peculiar quality in the atmos- 
phere of this otherwise rigorous climate which favours vegetation ; 
for if not, these comparatively delicate plants could not live and 
flourish through the long and severe winters of this region. 
In the summer, the temperature at night was frequently as low 
as 29° of Fahrenheit, and yet I never noticed the following morn- 
ing any blight or injury sustained by these plants, even in the 
slightest degree. 
I have occasionally, during the summer, been up the greater 
part of the night at my observatory, with the internal as well as 
the external thermometers as low as freezing point, without being 
particularly warmly clad, and yet not feeling the least cold; and 
in the winter, the thermometer, on similar occasions, has been at 
24° and 26°, without my suffering the slightest inconvenience. 
This I attributed at the time to the peculiar stillness of the air, 
although, within a short distance in the offing and overhead, the 
wind was high. 
Whilst upon this subject, there are two facts which may be 
* The stems of both from six to seven inches in diameter. 
