I pursued my way among the rocks ip search
of plants. I cannot compare the country I
here walked over, to any thing or place I
know, which it so much resembles, as the
summit of Ben Nevis; for, with the exception
giving the wearers a singularly wild and savage appearance.
This dress is worn over their common
clothes. The machines are of a simple structure 3
consisting of an Upright stick, three'or four feet high,'
and a smaller transverse bar, crossing this at the top,
and turning on its centre: from this horizontal bar,
hangs down at each extremity, a longer piece of wood,
in such a manner as to form three sides of an oblong
square. The annexed sketch conveys a sufficiently accurate
idea of the whole. Two or thfee or more of these
are placed near every fishing-house, so that, when the
inhabitants return from fishing, with their wet dresses,
they suspend them, by fitting them pn the upper part
of these machines, which turn about with the wind,
in such a way that a current of air always passes
through them.
o f here and there a few patches of verdure,
the whole was a mass of broken pieces of
rock, not piled up in heaps, hut forming a
great plain, or, at most, only rising in a few.
hills, of a gentle and gradual ascent. Nearer
the sea, some of these pieces of rock were
covered with a little earth, and grass, apd in
other places the interstices, were frequently,
filled with Trichostomum canescens, among
which grew many alpine plants, which again
forcibly reminded me of the summit of our
more elevated Scotch mountains, where the
vegetation is by no means dissimilar. Among
the most common lichens were Endocarpan
tepkroides, Leeidea geographica, a new Le-
cidea with a yellow granulated crust and,
brighter yellow shields, Cetraria islándica
and nivalis, Parmelia scrobiculata, fusco-
lútea, and brunnea, Stereocaulon globife-
rum, and Bcepmyces endivifolius, and vermicular
is. I met with but few mosses,
except such as are extremely common almost
every where. There was one, however, that
approached, in habit, Encalypta lanceolata,
a sketch of which I happen now to have by
me, and from this, on comparison, it appears