ed, lose their force at ten or
twelve leagues from land; and at a greater distance, there is none.

During the time we were upon the coast we had more calms than storms,
and the winds so variable, that I question if a passage might not have
been made from east to west in as short a time as from west to east; nor
did we experience any cold weather. The mercury in the thermometer at
noon was never below 46 deg.; and while we lay in Christmas Sound it was
generally above temperate. At this place the variation was 23 deg. 30' E.; a
few leagues to the S. W. of Strait Le Maire it was 24 deg.; and at anchor,
within New Year's Isles, it was 24 deg. 20' E.

These isles are, in general, so unlike Staten Land, especially the one
on which we landed, that it deserves a particular description. It shews
a surface of equal height, and elevated about thirty or forty feet above
the sea, from which it is defended by a rocky coast. The inner part of
the isle is covered with a sort of sword-grass, very green, and of a
great length. It grows on little hillocks of two or three feet in
diameter, and as many or more in height, in large tufts, which seemed to
be composed of the roots of the plant matted together. Among these
hillocks are a vast number of paths made by sea-bears and penguins, by
which they retire into the centre of the isle. It is, nevertheless,
exceedingly bad travelling; for these paths are so dirty that one is
sometimes up to the knees in mire. Besides this plant, there are a few
other grasses, a kind of heath, and some celery. The whole surface is
moist and wet, and on the coast are several small streams of water. The
sword-grass, as I call it, seems to be the same that grows in Falkland
Isles, described by Bougainville as a kind of _gladiolus_, or rather a
species of _gramen_[9] and named by Pernety corn-flags.

[Footnote 9: See English Translation of Bougainville, p. 51.]

The animals found on this little spot are sea-lions, sea-bears, a
variety of oceanic, and some land-birds. The se

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