8 4 
1776. 
December. 
V----' 
faxifrage , which grows in large fpreading tufts, to a con- 
fiderable way up the hills. It forms a furface of a pretty 
large texture, and grows on a kind of rotten turf, into 
which one links a foot or two at every Hep. This turf, 
dried, might, in cafes of neceflity, ferve for fuel, and is the 
only thing we met with here that could poflibly he applied 
to this ufe. 
There is another plant, plentifully enough fcattered about 
the boggy declivities, which grows to near the height of 
two feet, and not much unlike a fmall cabbage, when it 
has fhot into feeds. The leaves about the root are nume¬ 
rous, large, and rounded; narrower at the bafe, and ending 
in a fmall point. Thofe on the ftalks are much fmaller, 
oblong, and pointed. The ftalks, which are often three 
or four, all rife feparately from the root, and run into long 
cylindrical heads, compofed of fmall flowers. It has not 
only the appearance, but the watery acrid tafte of the anti- 
fcorbutic 
A VOYAGE TO 
tioned, had made Natural Hiftory a part of his ftudies, loft 
no opportunity, during the fhort time we lay in Chriftmas 
Harbour, of fearching the country in every direction. He 
afterward communicated to me the obfervations he made 
on its natural productions; and I fliall infert them here in 
his own words. 
“ Perhaps no place, hitherto difcovered in either hemi- 
fphere, under the fame parallel of latitude, affords fo fcanty 
a field for the naturalift as this barren fpot. The verdure 
which appears, when at a little diftance from the Ihore, 
would flatter one with the expectation of meeting with 
fome herbage ; but in this we were much deceived. For 
on landing, we faw that this lively colour was occafioned 
only by one fmall plant, not much unlike fome forts of 
