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Show TIERRA DEL FUEGO. June, 1834. med trees of Fuchsia and Veronica, in Englan~ c?nsidered and treated as tender plants, in full flower, Withm a very short distance of the base of a mountain covered for twothirds down with snow, and with the temperatur~ a~ 36°." He states, also, that humming-birds were seen s1ppmg the sweets of the flowers, " after two or three days of constant rain, snow, and sleet, during which time the thermometer had been at the freezing point.'" I myself have seen parro~s feeding on the seeds of the winter's bark, south of latitude 55°. Although the limit of an almost tropical vegetation extends thus far southward, yet the· dearth of living things, both. vegetable and animal, on the islands situated even far without the antarctic circle, is surprising, compared with the corresponding parallels in the northern hemisphere. In South Shetland in lat. 62° to 63° (same as Ferroe, or southern part ofNorway) Weddell* states, "None of the is~and~ afford a~y vegetation save a short straggling grass, whiCh 1s found m very small patches in places where there happens to be a little soil. This, together with a moss similar to that which is found in Iceland, appears in the middle of January, at which time the islands are partially clear of snow." In Deception Island, one of the same group; Lieutenant Kendall, says, t " There was nothing in the shape of vegetation except a small kind of lichen." The island itself is partly composed of ice and volcanic ashes interstratified. Another curious proof of the rigour of the climate is mentioned : " Having observed a ,mound on the hill immediately above this cove, I opened it, and found a rude coffin, the rotten state of which bespoke its having been long consigned to the earth; but the body had undergone scarcely any decomposition. The legs were doubled up, and it was dressed in the jacket and cap of a sailor, but neither they nor the countenance were similar to those of an Englishman." Sandwich Land, which is nearly three degrees further from '*' Weddell's Voyage, p. 133. t Geographical Journal, 1830, pp. 65 and 66. June, 1834. ANTARCTIC ISLANDS. the pole, is thus described by Captain Cook (February 1st, hottest time in the year, and in same latitude as north of Scotland) : " Every part was blocked or filled up with ice, and the whole country, from the summits of the mountains down to the very brink of the cliffs which terminate the coast, covered many fathoms thick with everlasting snow. The cliffs alone were all which was to be seen like land." Again he adds, talking of two islets, "These only were clear of snow, and seemed covered with a green turf." In Georgia, lat. 54° to 55°, the bays are terminated by icc cliffs of considerable height, and, according to Cook, the country" in the very height of summer, is in a manner wholly covered many fathoms deep with frozen snow, but more especially on the south-west coast." rrhe only vegetable is " a strong-bladed grass growing in tufts, wild burnet, and a plant like moss." Although 96 miles long and about ten broad, it possesses not a single quadruped, and only one land bird, namely a small titlark (an Anthus), a specimen of which I procured in the Falklands. This bird, if undescribed, certainly well deserves the name of antarcticus, for although not living within that circle, it inhabits a more inhospitable region than any other terrestrial animal. Anderson, in Cook's Voyage, says, even in Kerguelen Land (an island 120 miles long by 60 broad, and situated in lat 50°, corresponding to the extreme southern point of England), ",..rhe whole catalogue of plants does not exceed sixteen or seventeen, including some sorts of moss, and a beautiful species of lichen which grows upon the rocks higher up than the rest of the vegetable productions. Nor is there even the least appearance of a shrub in the whole country." It is doubtful whether there is a single land bird ; and then he adds, " The hills are of a moderate height; yet many of their tops were covered with snow* at this time, though answering to our June." These statements forcibly prove the intemperance of the climate even far without the frozen limits of the antarctic circle. * I have reason to believe, that icebergs nre formed on the coast during a part of the year. VOL. HI. T |