Barren as these
rocks appeared, yet almost every plant which we gathered on them was
new to us, and some species were remarkable for the beauty of their
flowers, or their smell." - G.F.
[2] Mr G.F. has given a pretty minute description of the country
around this sound, and its annual and vegetable productions; but for a
reason afterwards stated by Captain Cook, there seems little
inducement to copy from it. Those who think otherwise, but who,
perhaps, are very few in number, will have recourse to that
gentleman's narrative. - E.
[3] The reader who is not satisfied with the picture now given of
these wretched and disgusting beings, may turn to the abstract of
Bougainville's Voyage, quoted in the preceding volume of this
collection, which surely ought to suffice. - E.
[4] In the cavities and crevices of the huge piles of rocks, forming
Terra del Fuego and Staten-land, so very like each other, where a
little moisture is preserved by its situation, and where from the
continued friction of the loose pieces of rocks, washed and hurried
down the steep sides of the rocky masses, a few minute particles form
a kind of sand; there in the stagnant water gradually spring up a few
algaceous plants from seeds carried thither on the feet, plumage, and
bills of birds; these plants form at the end of each season a few
atoms of mould which yearly increases; the birds, the sea, or the wind
carries from a neighbouring isle, the seeds of some of the mossy
plants to this little mould, and they vegetate in it daring the proper
season.
