1774* D ecember.
plants, in growth like moffes, which forming a kind of
turf, about an inch or more in thicknefs, very eafily flip
away under the foot, having no firm hold on the rock.
In fheltered places a few other plants thrive among thefe
mofiy fpecies, and thefe at laft form a fufficient quantity of
foil, for the nutriment of fhrubs, efpecially in fueh fpots as
I have mentioned before. Among them we immediately
found the fpecies, the bark of which captain Winter dif-
covered to be an excellent aromatic, known in the fhops by
the name of Winter’s bark, but frequently, till of late, confounded
with a very different plant, the canella alba, of Jamaica.
This Winter’s bark-tree grows on the fhores of the ftraits of
Magalhaens, and on the eaftern parts of Tierra del Iuego,
to a {lately fize; but in this barren part we never faw it under
any other form than that of a fhrub, about ten fe.et
high, crooked and fhapelefs, Barren as thefe ro.cks appeared,
yet almoft every plant which we gathered on them
was new to us, and fome fpecies were remarkable for the
beauty o f their flowers, or their fmell. A new fpecies of
geefe, a fort of fliags, the black oyfter^catchers, or fea-pies,
and feveral other birds dwelt along the fhores, which were
lined with immenfe floating beds of rockweeds. At our
return, all our people began to remove the fliip into her
new fituation, where fhe was moored in the afternoon. A
few fmall filh, of a new fpecies of cod, were caught among
the
the weeds; but in general every attempt to fupply the table d« S . . .
by fifhing proved unfuccefsful.
Early the next morning, captain Cook fet out to take
bearings in the found, and we took that opportunity of
examining its natural produftions. The found is very fpa-
cious, and furrounded to the north and eaft by feveral ranges
of high mountains, which feem covered with permanent
fnow and ice. In the bay itfelf are feveral ifiands of con-
fiderable elevation, though not equal to the height of the
main land, of which only the higheft have fome fnow on
their very fummits. That under which our fhip lay at
anchor, was free from fnow, though it feemed to be at
leaf! two hundred yards perpendicular in height. Befides
thefe high ifiands, we obferved feveral, from ten to twenty
yards high, which lay in the northern part of the found,
and appeared to be almoft covered with verdure at a distance.
We directed our courfe to one of thefe, about three
miles off, of which the mofles and fhrubs, upon nearer
examination, feemed to have been burnt in feveral places.
The rock was here a kind of yellowifh flate, which lay in
horizontal ftrata, covered with a much thicker ftratum of
foil, than we had feen on the- other ifland. Among the
plants which grew on it, we picked up fome new ones, and
on its fhores met with a new fort of fly-catcher, which lived
upon fliell-fifh and worms, and feemed for that purpofe to
be furnifhed with a much ftronger bill, than the birds of
V ql. II. R r i t'lat