VEGETATION CLIMATE. 



577 



the country and hills, from the height of two thousand feet above 

 the sea, to the very verge of the high-water mark^ are covered 

 with a perpetual verdure which is remarkably striking, particularly 

 in those places where the glaciers descend into the sea ; the sud- 

 den contrast in such cases presenting to the view a scene as agree- 

 able as it seems to be anomalous. I have myself seen vegetation 

 thriving most luxuriantly, and large woody-stemmed trees of 

 Fuchsia and Veronica* (in England considered and treated as 

 tender plants)^ in full flower, within a very short distance of the 

 base of a mountain, covered for two-thirds down with snow, and 

 with the temperature at 36°. The Fuchsia certainly was rarely 

 found except in sheltered spots, but not so the Veronica ; for the 

 beaches of the bays on the west side of San Juan Island at Port 

 San Antonio are lined with trees of the latter, growing even in the 

 very wash of the sea. There is no part of the Strait more ex- 

 posed to the wind than this, for it faces the reach to the west of 

 Cape Froward, down which the wind constantly blows, and brings 

 with it a succession of rain, sleet, or snow; and in the winter 

 months, from April to August, the ground is covered with a layer 

 of snow, from six inches to two or three feet in depth. 



There must be^ therefore, some peculiar quality in the atmos- 

 phere of this otherwise rigorous climate which favours vegetation ; 

 for if not, these comparatively delicate plants could not live and 

 flourish through the long and severe winters of this region. 



In the summer, the temperature at night was frequently as low 

 as 29° of Fahrenheit, and yet I never noticed the following morn-r 

 ing any blight or injury sustained by these plants, even in the 

 slightest degree. 



I have occasionally, during the summer^ been up the greater 

 part of the night at my observatory, with the internal as well as 

 the external thermometers as low as freezing point, without being 

 particularly warmly clad, and yet not feeling the least cold ; and 

 in the winter, the thermometer, on similar occasions, has been at 

 24° and 26°, without my suffering the slightest inconvenience. 

 This I attributed at the time to the peculiar stillness of the air, 

 although, within a short distance in the offing and overhead, the 

 wind was high. 



Whilst upon this subject, there are two facts which may be 

 * The stems of both from six to seven inches in diameter. 



