FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 197 
not ripen, though the islands lie the same distance south 
of the equator that London does north. It is the absence 
of any continued heat and sunshine that prevents fruit 
ripening. In the two hottest months of the year, December 
and January, the average temperature is only 47°, varying 
from 40° to 65°, but in the two mid- winter months the tem- 
perature only varies from 30° to 50 0 , with an average of 37 0 . 
Rain falls two hundred 
days in the year, but it only 
amounts to twenty inches, 
and the air is dry and in- 
vigorating, owing to the con- 
stant winds. The prevalent 
wind is southerly or sou'- 
westerly — the wind that 
brings our merchantmen 
home from the colonies 
round Cape Horn, and sends 
them bowling along the 
forties on their outward 
voyage round the Cape of 
Good Hope. 
This may possibly be like one of the natives of the 
islands. It was just a glimpse of her I saw as she passed 
out of a store — marketing, I think. 
And the following is another jotting of a Falkland 
Islander. Bruce and I met him on board a schooner that 
arrived in Stanley from * The Coast,' as the Islanders call 
the east coast of South America. The schooner had come 
across with horses on board, and open hatches ! This man 
