20 On the Tussac Grass in {he Falkhind Islands. 
quickly shoots up; but is injured by grazing, particularly by pigs, 
who tear it up to get at the sweet nutty root. I do not know how 
it would be relished as hay ; but cattle will eat the dry thatch off 
the roof of a house in winter. Then* fondness for this food is so 
great that they will scent it at a great distance, and use every 
endeavour to get at it. Some bundles which were stacked in the 
yard at the back of the government-house were quickly found 
out, and the cattle from the village made repeated endeavours 
every night to get at them, giving much trouble to the sentry on 
duty to drive them away. 
Extract from a Report of Mr. Hooker to Lieut.- Gov. Moody, inclosed 
in the foregoing Dispatch. 
" H.M.S. Erebus, Berkeley Sound, Falkland Islands, 
5th September, 1842. 
" I shall now, according to promise, lay before your Excellency a slight 
account of some of the more useful plants of this colony, especially of 
such as appear to be at present, or may prove in time, of most use to 
man. 
" The remarkable increase and fine condition of tlie cattle (compara- 
tively speaking) recently introduced on the island naturally call the 
attention to the grasses in a country devoid of trees, or of any vegetable 
production likely to prove more important. Amongst these, which are 
very numerous, and form one-fifth of the plants hitherto discovered, the 
tussac holds the first place ; as, however, you have a description of it, 
and know far more of its invaluable properties than I do, it would he 
useless to recapitulate here: suffice it to say, that with proper attention 
to its propagation in any locality near tlie coast, and preservation from 
being entirely eaten down where it already abounds, it alone would yield 
abundant pasturage for as many cattle as the island is ever likely to 
want. 
" Another grass, however, far more abundant, and universally distri- 
bated over the whole country, scarcely yields in its nutritious qualities to 
the tussac; I mtmihc Ariindo alopeciiriis, which covers every peat- 
l)og with a dense and rich clothing of green in summer, aiid a pale yel- 
low good hay in the winter season. This liay, though formed by nature 
without being mown and dried, keeps those cattle which have not access 
to the former grass in excellent condition — as the beef which our parties, 
for the four winter months, sui)])lied the ships with, can abundantly 
testify. No bog, however rank, seems too bad for this plant to luxuriate 
in ; and, as we remarked during our survey of Port William, although 
the soil on the quartz districts was very unprolific in many good grasses 
which flourish on the clay-slate, and generally speaking of the worst 
description, still the Arundo did not appear to feel the change; nor did 
the cattle fail to eat down large tracts of such pasturage. 
" The numerous troops of horses, also, on the flanks of the Wickham 
Heights, can have little other fodder ; whilst tliose of Mount Lowe and 
Mount Vemet must depend upon it entirely. Should tiie tussac disap- 
