Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/106

48 World, p. 60), and A. frustrum, Ulva intestinalis, and Corallina officinalis.

14th. Staten Land is much more craggy than Terra del Fuego, though the view of it in Lord Anson's voyage is exaggerated. The Captain stood into a bay just within Cape St. Vincent [Staten Island]; and while the ship stood off and on, Dr. Solander and I went ashore. I found about a hundred plants, though we were not ashore above four hours. Of these I may say every one was new, and entirely different from what either of us had before seen.

The country about this bay is, in general, flat. Here is, however, good wood, water, and great quantities of fowl. In the cod of the bay is a flat covered with grass, where much hay might be made. The bay itself is bad, affording but little shelter for shipping, and in many parts of it the bottom is rocky and foul. This, however, may be always known in these countries by the beds of Fucus giganteus, which constantly grow upon the rock, and are not seen upon sand or ooze. These weeds grow to an immense length. We sounded upon them, and found fourteen fathoms of water. As they seem to make a very acute angle with the bottom in their situation in the water, it is difficult to guess how long they may be, but probably they are not less than half as long again as the depth of the water, which makes their length 126 feet; a wonderful length for a stalk not thicker than a man's thumb.

Among other things the bay affords, there is plenty of Winter's bark, easily known by its broad leaf, like a laurel, of a light green colour, bluish underneath. The bark is easily stripped off with a bone or stick, as oaks are barked in England. Its virtues are so well known that of them I shall say little, except that it may be used as a spice even in culinary matters, and is found to be very wholesome. Here is also plenty of wild celery (Apium antiscorbuticum) and scurvy grass (Cardamine antiscor-