WANDERINGS ON SHORE. 
93 
the sea. The bay we entered, on the 3rd of May, was 
named after a very shrewd Dutch woman, Mary Muss, 
whose energy and industry entitled her to rank 
amongst the foremost merchants of Eotterdam in this 
lucrative trade; this intelligent woman was the first to 
send a ship provided with all the necessary appliances 
for boiling the blubber on the coast after the whales 
were captured, and the oil and whalebone so obtained 
gained a higher market price than could be obtained 
after the blubber had lost some of its most valuable 
qualities by being stowed away in its crude state. Our 
companion, with one sailor, landed here, whilst we and 
another ascended a mountain ridge, about a mile to the 
northwards. On the way we noticed several patches 
of rich vegetation, and we gathered specimens of the 
botanical productions, such as they were. One plant 
we found growing in great abundance, we regarded as 
a species of saxifrage or arenaria. We had some idea 
of making a long detour, and of joining our friends at 
a point somewhere on the eastern slope of the island. 
But the labour and risk involved in such an adventure 
was so great, owing to the slippery state of the snowy 
ledges and the exceedingly rough volcanic nature of 
the ground, composed for the most part of scoriae, cin¬ 
ders, and blocks of lava, whicji crumbled beneath our 
weight as we endeavoured to force our way over the 
