Systematic Botany.] StJBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 455 



elucidate, may be considered as forming a portion of this ring or zone ; and we shall 

 find that the whole of the islands composing the ring possess many curious and 

 remarkable points of agreement, so far as their flora is concerned. For information 

 respecting the relative position of the islands reference should be made to the map 

 of the antarctic and subantarctic regions accompanying this volume ; but it is 

 advisable to give a few details respecting each group. 



Considerably more than 4,000 miles to the westward of Macquarie Island and 

 about 2,200 miles to the south-east of the Cape of Good Hope is Kerguelen Island, 

 situated between 48° 39' and 49° 44' S. lat., and in long. 70° E., and which thus lies 

 about 1,250 miles from the nearest part of the Antarctic Continent. Its extreme 

 length is about eighty-five miles and greatest breadth about seventy-nine, but, as 

 the coast-line on all sides is much cut up by deep sounds or fiords, no part of 

 the interior being more than ten or twelve miles from the sea, the total area does 

 not much exceed 2,000 square miles. Its surface is everywhere rough and moun- 

 tainous, the highest peak (Mount Ross) attaining a height of 6,120 ft. In the centre 

 of the island a district of considerable extent is covered by snowfields, from which 

 small glaciers descend on all sides ; but evidences of more complete recent glaci- 

 ation are everywhere present. The geological structure is purely volcanic, with the 

 exception of certain thin beds of coal, interstratified with the volcanic rocks. The 

 occurrence of these is of considerable interest, from the proof which they give 

 of the former existence of a much milder climate and more copious vegetation. 

 Kerguelen lies in the zone of westerly winds, and its climate is tempestuous, chilly, 

 and wet. At the same time, the range of temperature is not excessive, the 

 thermometer seldom falling much below 32° F. in winter, or rising much above 60° 

 in summer. 



About 950 miles to the north-west of Kerguelen is a group of several contiguous 

 islands of small size, known collectively as the Crozets, of which the principal are 

 Possession, Hog, and East Islands, to which may be added Inaccessible or Penguin 

 Island. Possession Island, which is situated in 47° S. lat. and 50° 30' E. long., is 

 the largest of the group, being fifteen or twenty miles in length by about half the 

 breadth. It is high, bare, and rocky, and attains a height of about 5,000 ft. Nearly 

 500 miles still further to the west is the Prince Edward Group, consisting of Marion 

 Island and Prince Edward Island. Marion Island, which is much the larger of the 

 two, is in S. lat. 46° 52' and E. long. 37° 45'. It is about eleven miles in length by 

 eight in extreme breadth, its area being about eighty square miles. Like Kerguelen 

 and the Crozets, it is purely volcanic, and attains a height of 4,250 ft. Rather more 

 than 300 miles to the south of Kerguelen lies the isolated Macdonald Group, of which 

 Heard or Young Island is the only one which has been examined. It has an elongated 

 shape, being about twenty-five miles in extreme length by six in breadth. It is 

 exceedingly rough and rugged. Big Ben, the highest mountain, attaining a height of 

 7,000 ft. A considerable part of the island is snow-clad, and numerous glaciers 

 come down to the shore. 



The next island to be considered is South Georgia, which is situated about 

 3,500 miles south-west of Marion Island and about 1,000 miles to the eastward of 

 Cape Horn. From the nearest point of the Antarctic Continent it is barely more 

 than 750 miles distant. New Zealand lies fully 5,300 miles to the eastward. Its 

 average latitude may be given as 54° 8' S., and the longitude as 37° W. It is much 



