Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

256 BTIUSHWOOD PKAT — GRASS. kinds, a sort of quail (like that of Tierra del Fucgo), carrion- hawks or vultures, albatrosses, gulls, petrel, penguins, sea- hens, shags, rooks, curlew, sandpipers, rock-hoppers, and a very few land-birds, are found about most of the islands. * Although there are no trees, a useful kind of brushwood grows abundantly in vallies, to the height of three or four feet, and thickly set together. Over level plains it is but thinly scattered. The settlers use this brushwood for liffhting their peat-fires. There are three kinds of bushes : one grows straight, from two to five feet high, with a stem from half an inch to an inch and half in diameter : this kind is found abundantly in most of the vallies. Another is common about the southern parts of the islands, and has a crooked trunk, as thick as a man's arm, growing to about three feet in height. The third is smaller still, being little better than heather ; it grows almost every where, though scantily. Peat is inexhaustible ; and, if properly managed, answers every common purpose of fuel, not only as a substitute, but pleasantly.-j- It will not, however, in its natural state, answer for a foi'ge; but if dried and subjected to heavy pressure for some time before use, a much greater heat might be derived from it. There is but little diiFerence in the quality of the grass, either on high or low land ; but in sheltered valleys it is longer, softer, and greener, than elsewhere. The whole face of the country is covered with it ; and in some places, especially over a peaty soil, its growth becomes hard and rank. In the * ' Birds' eggs are so numerous at the proper season, that " eight men gathered at one place alone, in four or five da3's, upwards of sixty thou- sand eggs, and might have collected twice that number had they re- mained a few days longer." — Vernet, MS. 1831. •f " The want of wood on these islands would be a great inconvenience, were it not that good peat is very abundant. I have burned many tons, and found it an excellent substitute for coal. Tn order to get it drv, it is necessary to pull it from the sides of the pit, not very deep ; and as there are several peat-holes, by working them alternately, the material may be procured in a state fit for use." — Weddell's Voyage, p. 88.