VISIT TO KEEGUELEN'S LAND 101 
During our stay I devoted all my time to collect every- 
thing in the botanical way, and I hope you will not be dis- 
appointed with the fruits of my poor exertions. You say 
you hope I shall double the Flora and I have done so.i I 
was much surprised at finding the plants in a good state of 
flower and fruit (all but two). 
My time was my own to leave the ship when I liked, for 
the Captain took off all restrictions to my going where I 
hked. My rambles were generally sohtary, through the 
wildest country I ever saw. The hill tops are always covered 
with snow and frost, and many of my best little Lichens were 
gathered by hammering out the tufts or sitting on them till 
they thawed. The days were so short and the country so 
high, snowy, and bad that I never could get far from the 
harbour, though I several times tried by starting before hght. 
As far as I went the vegetation did not differ from that of 
the bays. . . . 
I went several boating excursions in the neighbourhood, 
and in one was dismasted and nearly swamped. So Captain 
Ross would send no more, and I am promised to be of a longer 
and better party on the next opportunity. Two Lycopodia, 
one splendid one, and a Fern were all Mr. McCormick added 
to my collection. He brought numerous splendid quartz 
crystals and zeolites, &c., together with lots of coal and fossil 
wood. The latter we had long before found, and I first 
detected it lying in immense trunks in the solid basaltic 
rock ; its existence here is wonderful in the extreme ; I 
have plenty of specimens. 
[In the absence of trees, the coloured patches of Lichens 
on the hillsides, the heaving belt of seaweed girdling the 
shores, took the place of forest green or autumnal tints.] 
The Lichens appear here to form a greater comparative 
portion of the vegetable world than in any other portion of 
the globe, especially when it is considered that from the want 
of large trees there can be no parasitical species. The rocks 
from the water's edge to the summit of the hills are appar- 
ently painted with them, their fronds adhering so closely to 
the stone that they are with difficulty detached ; in other 
1 Sir William had written : ' I wish I could have a day's botanising with 
you in Kerguelen's Land. I think we could at least double the Flora. Look 
well to the Cryptogamia and see how far south the Algae extend and what are 
the species.' 
VOL. I K 
