Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/250

218 the name of Hazy Island has been given to one of the largest, of which the rocky summit alone is seen standing out in bold relief above an almost perennial fog-bank. During our passage from the Cape of Good Hope to Kerguelen's Land, Sir James Ross endeavoured to effect a landing, first upon Marion Island and afterwards upon one of the Crozets, but most unfortunately for the interests especially of Botany, our efforts were frustrated by the tempestuous weather. In one night, during which the 'Erebus' was hove to for the purpose of landing upon Marion Island, she was blown sixty miles to leeward of it; she then bore up for the Crozets, to meet a similar mishap; on this occasion, having provisions to land for a party of miserable sealers, we again beat up to Possession Island, the easternmost of the group, and after the detention of nearly a week in the most inclement season and tempestuous ocean, only arrived at the time of the brooding of another storm, which rendered it highly imprudent for any boat to leave the ship in an open roadstead. The aspect of this island was, like all the others we sighted, dreary and inhospitable to the last degree; a narrow belt of green herbage skirted its shore, above a line of black basaltic cliffs, which formed the iron-bound coast; while higher again rose crater-shaped barren hills of blue-grey or brick-red coloured rocks, utterly destitute of vegetation and alike dismal to the eye and mind. These were the first Antarctic Islands we had seen, and few of us will forget the feelings to which their desolate aspect gave rise; sensations, which for intensity afford the strongest contrast with those which an English naturalist never fads to experience during his first ramble on some tropical shore. M. de Jussieu had the kindness to show me a small pamphlet, containing a slight account of the Crozets, drawn up from information received through the captains of sealing ships. The vegetation is described as most scanty. From the short interview which we held with a party of sealers who had been left upon one of the group, I gleaned but little information; they told me the species were few, and the famous Cabbage of Kerguelen's Land not amongst them, though another "scurvy-grass" was abundant. The vegetation that our glasses enabled us to detect, formed, apparently, a matted carpet, extending from the shores upwards for a short distance, very similar to what we afterwards saw in Kerguelen's Land, though different from the long grass that appeared to clothe Prince Edward's Island. These two groups are situated only 800 miles south-east from the Cape of Good Hope, but being placed to the southward of the 40th degree of latitude they partake of the climate of the Antarctic Ocean. Their position between Fuegia and Kerguelen's Land and their formation being probably the same as the latter, I have little doubt their Flora, when known, will be found to prove characteristic of the extreme south of America and in no degree similar to that of Africa, with which they are even in closer proximity than is Tristan d'Acunha. Barren and inhospitable as are the shores of these islands, there are no spots on the surface of the globe whose botanical productions would be of greater interest to science, for their vegetation is wholly unknown, and is wanting to complete our otherwise pretty extensive acquaintance with the distribution of plants throughout the islands of the high southern latitudes.