i é R E M A R< K 5 O N t h e
I s l a n d s , or when free, lhewing their fnowy heads at more than twenty or
thirty leagues dillance. The lower hills o f the lame illands are al-
moft every where covered with woods and forefts, and none but the
higher fummits appear to be barren.
Tierra del Fuego as far as we could difcover, appears to be a duller
©f lfles interfered by various deep founds and channels. T h e land
eonfills o f craggy, bleak and lleep rocks, whofe fummits are covered
with eternal fnow, eipecially in thole interior- parts which are lels
expofed to the mild and humid air o f theTea. Its -Eallernmoll fide
about the. ftreights le Maire, has an eafy Hope,.and is in fome parts
wooded. Staten Land has the fame appearance as the barren part
o f Tierra del Fuego: nor was the fnow wanting in the beginning of
January or the very height o f fummer. -
Southern Georgia is an ille o f about eighty leagues in extent, con-
lilling o f high hills, none o f which were free from Ihow in the middle
o f January, except a few rocks towards the fea: and the bottoms
o f all its harbours we found filled with ice.
. T h e lalt land we faw in theft cold, difmal regions we called Sandwich
Land, and the Southernmoll part o f it, Southern Thule. A ll this
land or duller o f illes, is full o f ice and entirely covered with fnow.
------- Pigris ubi nulla campis
Arbor eejliua reereatur aura :
Quod latus mundi, nebulce, malufquc
Jupiter urget. H or. lib. i . Od. X X I I .
S E C T I O N III.
S 1 ' R A T A .
O foil appears on Southern G eo r g ia , except in a few
crevices o f the rocks; all the reft is a ponderous Hate which
contains fome irony particles, lies in horizontal firata or nearly fo,
and is here and there perpendicularly interfedled by veins of quartz. -
T h e rocks o f Tierra del Fuego near the lea, are o f thé lamé nature
and have on the higher parts, coarfe granite rocks. (Saxum)
Th e Southern ille of N ew Z e e l and which we vifited in two
different places, is on its furface covered with a ftratum o f fine
black light mould, formed o f putrified. molles,: deciduous leaves,
and rotten trees- {humus dcedalea df ruralis, Linnafi.) This ftratum is
in fome places about ten or twelve inches thick, but in general'not fo
deep j under it w e found an argillaceous fubftance nearly related tothe
clafs o f talcous Hones, which is turned into a kind o f earth, by being
expofed to the adlion o f the fun, air, rain and froll, and-is o f various
thicknefs: Hill deeper the fame is indurated into Hone, running
in oblique llrata dipping generally to the South: their hardnefs
varies confiderably, for fome o f the moll indurated, and compadt will
llrike fire with Heel. Their colour is generally a pale yellow, fomes
t r a t a .
D tones