The Antarctic 
From the graphic descriptions of Mr. Cockayne, the 
Snares islands seem to be very peculiar, Where ex- 
posed to the wind, the ground is covered by great 
tussocks of a grass, Danthonia, which seems to form 
its own peat apparently, like our cotton-grass. Where 
there is some shelter, the ground is covered by scrub. 
If itis of Suttonia divaricata, it may be as high as one’s 
waist. One can crawl underneath the branches or walk 
over the top of them, or one may sit down and roll 
over the tops of these shrubs. In getting to his camp 
(only a mile away), from the top of a hill 700 feet high, 
two and a half hours were occupied, 
On Ewing island, a regular forest of Olearia Lyallii 
occurs. This has been destroyed in other places by a 
better developed vegetation of Metrosideros lucida or 
“rata.” 
The enormous numbers of sea-birds insure a plentiful 
manuring of the soil, and the wallowing of the sea-lions 
has also greatly altered the vegetation. 
If one compares what vegetation has managed to do 
in the Antarctic and in the Arctic, one cannot help an 
impression that those beeches of the Southern Pole are 
perhaps more efficient than the pines, spruce, and larch 
which are the most northerly woods in the Northern 
hemisphere, 
At any rate they are closer grown and accumu- 
late more humus than the pinewoods of the North 
(see p. 236). 
1 Hooker. * Chardot. 3 Fries. * Reiche. 
® Weindorfer. 8 Cockayne. 7 Arctowsky, Murray. 
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