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Malouines, from the inhabitants of St. M aloes whom
they imagine to have heen their first discoverers; and
the Spanish name, the Malvinas, the most euphonious
of them all, is the one still mostly in use hy their
neighbours of South America.
The islands are ahout a hundred in number, hut
only tAvo of them are of any size. They lie between
the parallels of 51° and 52° 45' South, and the
meridians of 57° 20' and 61° 46 West. The climate is
very miserable, considering that the latitude corresponds
with that of Middlesex; for though the
thermometer rarely falls in Avinter much heloAV the
freezing point, it rarely rises in summer much above
18°-5 C. ; and fog and rain are so constant and
sunshine so scarce, that wheat will not ripen, barley
and oats can scarcely he said to do so, and the
common English vegetables Avill not produce seed in
tbe gardens. Still the colony appears to be very
healthy, the inhabitants seem to get thoroughly
accustomed to their moist, chilly surroundings, and
the only ‘ pale maidens ’ to he seen are the drooping
delicate floAvers of Sisyrinchium fiUfoUiim, Avhich
cover the ‘ camp ’ round Stanley in early spring and
have earned that pretty soubriquet. Of late years
the industry of the Ealkland Islands has heen
developing most rapidly. It has been fonnd that the
pasture is even more suitable for sheep than for
cattle ; and in 1872 the Ealkland Islands Company
alone had a flock of from forty to fifty thousand of
the best English breeds, a nnmher which has since
greafly increased. The a v o o I is said to he remarkahly
fine in quality. In various parts of the islands tbe
cattle altbougb noAV nomiinally belonging to some