PLANT-LIFE 



assistant, helping him to open the holes and pull the 

 dredge. 



When we took our walks abroad, every one kept 

 their eyes open for any interesting specimen of rock or 

 any signs of plant-life, and Murray was greatly pleased 

 one day when we brought back some moss. This was 

 found in a fairly sheltered spot beyond Back Door Bay 

 and was the only specimen that we obtained in the 

 neighbourhood of the winter quarters before the de- 

 parture of the sun. Occasionally we came across a 

 small lichen and some curious algse growing in the 

 volcanic earth, but these measured the extent of the 

 terrestrial vegetation in this latitude. In the north 

 polar regions, in a corresponding latitude, there are 

 eighteen different kinds of flowering plants, and there 

 even exists a small stunted tree, a species of willow. 



Although terrestrial vegetation is so scanty in the 

 Antarctic, the same cannot be said of the sub-aqueous 

 plant-life. When we first arrived and some of us walked 

 across the north shore of Cape Royds, we saw a great 

 deal of open water in the lakes, and a little later, when 

 all these lakes were frozen over, we walked across 

 them, and looking down through the clear ice, could 

 see masses of brilliantly coloured algse and fungi. The 

 investigation of the plant-life in the lakes was one of the 

 principal things undertaken by Murray, Priestley and 

 the Professor during the winter months. The reader has 

 the plan of our winter quarters and can follow easily 

 the various places that are mentioned in the course of 

 this narrative. 



After the Erebus party returned, a regular winter 

 routine was arranged for the camp. Brocklehurst 

 took no part in the duties at this time, for his frost- 

 bitten foot prevented his moving about, and shortly 

 after his return Marshall saw that it would be necessary 



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