158 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



settlement. From the summit we liad a fine view of the 

 curiously-shaped harbour, and saw one of those extraordinary 

 " streams of stones " which have attracted the attention of 

 most visitors to the Falklands, and for the origin of which 

 it is so difficult to account. They are formed of immense 

 accumulations of great angular fragments of quartz, spread 

 out in belts (sometimes as much as a mile broad, and two or 

 three miles long) in the valleys, extending in some instances 

 to the tops of the gray quartz hills, from which they appear to 

 have been derived. The name " streams of stones " is a very 

 fit title for them, as they frequently resemble the course of a 

 great river, although their deposition and arrangement are pro- 

 bably in no way the result of aqueous agency. Mr. Darwin, 

 in his observations on this wonderful phenomenon, remarks 

 that never did any scene like these " streams of stones " so 

 forcibly convey to his " mind the idea of a convulsion, of which 

 in historical records we might seek in vain for a counterpart ; 

 yet that the progress of knowledge will probably some day 

 give a simple explanation of this phenomenon, as it abeady 

 has of the so-long-thought inexplicable transportal of the 

 erratic boulders which are strewed over the plains of Europe." 

 As yet, however, no satisfactory solution of the problem seems 

 to have been arrived at. 



On the hill-side I observed several species of plants 

 already recognised in the Strait, such as the " Diddle-dee" 

 berry of the Falkland Islanders (a species of Empetrum, at one 

 time regarded as distinct from the E. nigrum of Europe, on 

 account of the red instead of black colour of the berries, to 

 which the Upland geese are very partial) ; as well as others 

 which were new to me,- such as the famous Balsam-bog, 

 Azorella (Bolax) glebaria ; the Falkland Island Tea-plant 

 (Myrtus nummularia) ; and the Almond-flower of the colonists 



