THE THIRD VOYAGE 139 
very much because poor Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander, 
after being accustomed to tropical heat and that hottest 
of harbors, Rio Janeiro, were rather suddenly cooled down 
here in the height of summer. The climate in winter is, 
however, as mild in proportion as the summers are chilly ; 
the annual temperature is assuredly low, but the averages 
of that of each season are remarkably close. 
Sir William was delighted with the living plants sent home 
from Hermite Island, and writes on March 14, 1843 : 
So valuable a consignment has not been received at the 
Garden since we came here. The two new kinds of Beech, 
and these the most Southern trees in the world, are invaluable, 
and the Winter's Bark Tree (of the latter only one specimen 
was in the kingdom before) are growing beautifully. 
Of the third voyage to the South Hooker wrote later to 
his father (March 7, 1843) : 
Now that the voyage is over we are very proud of it 
(pride in poverty, you will remark), for we have got nothing 
easily. This cruise was not so hazardous as the last, being 
less in Bergy seas, nor have we been in any so extreme 
danger, but then as the ships cannot last for ever it becomes 
daily more uncomfortable on the philosophical principle 
of the ' Pitcher going 99 times to the well.' 
Leaving the Falklands on December 17 * without one regret,' 
they proceded south on the meridian of 55 ° W., seeking for 
a continuation of Louis Philippe Land to the south-east. 
They met the pack on Christmas Day, and three days later 
sighted Joinville Land in the South Shetlands. Extended 
exploration was made and various islands discovered, while 
the ships were nearly wrecked on Darwdn Islet. On New 
Year's Day, 1843, Mount Haddington was discovered ; on 
January 5, Cockburn Island, in 64° 12' S., of which formal 
possession was taken. Ross's ' Voyage ' contains Hooker's 
special report, five pages long, of its rare vegetation. 
Landing on the * very singular 'crater-shaped, conical 
Island,' he writes, ' I procured the ghosts of eighteen Crypto- 
