XI CLIMATE OF ANTARCTIC ISLANDS 263 



that the limit of their transportal extends to 5 3 2° from the 

 northern pole ; but in Europe to not more than 40° of latitude, 

 measured from the same point. On the other hand, in the 

 intertropical parts of America, Asia, and Africa, they have 

 never been observed ; nor at the Cape of Good Hope, nor in 

 Australia.^ 



On the Climate and Productions of the Antarctic Islands. — 

 Considering the rankness of the vegetation in Tierra del Fuego, 

 and on the coast northward of it, the condition of the islands 

 south and south-west of America is truly surprising. Sandwich 

 Land, in the latitude of the north part of Scotland, was found 

 by Cook, during the hottest month of the year, " covered many 

 fathoms thick with everlasting snow ; " and there seems to be 

 scarcely any vegetation. Georgia, an island 96 miles long 

 and I o broad, in the latitude of Yorkshire, " in the very height 

 of summer, is in a manner wholly covered with frozen snow." 

 It can boast only of moss, some tufts of grass, and wild burnet ; 

 it has only one land-bird (Anthus correndera), yet Iceland, 

 which is 10° nearer the pole, has, according to Mackenzie, 

 fifteen land-birds. The South Shetland Islands, in the same 

 latitude as the southern half of Norway, possess only some 

 lichens, moss, and a little grass ; and Lieut. Kendall ^ found 

 the bay, in which he was at anchor, beginning to freeze at a 

 period corresponding with our 8 th of September. The soil 

 here consists of ice and volcanic ashes interstratified ; and at 

 a little depth beneath the surface it must remain perpetually 

 congealed, for Lieut. Kendall found the body of a foreign 

 sailor which had long been buried, with the flesh and all the 

 features perfectly preserved. It is a singular fact that on the 

 two great continents in the northern hemisphere (but not in 

 the broken land of Europe between them) we have the zone 

 of perpetually frozen under-soil in a low latitude — namely, in 

 56° in North America at the depth of three feet,^ and in 62° 



1 I have given details (the fir.st, I believe, published) on this subject in the first 

 edition, and in the Appendix to it. I have there shown that the apparent exceptions 

 to the absence of erratic boulders in certain hot countries are due to erroneous 

 observations ; several statements there given I have since found confirmed by various 

 authors, 



2 Geographical Journal, 1830, pp. 65, 66. 



2 Richardson's Append, to Back's Exped. and Humboldt's Fragm. Asiat. torn. 

 ii. p. 386, 



