"Two other small plants were found near the brooks and boggy places, which were eaten as sallad; the one almost like garden cresses, and very fiery, and the other very mild. This last, though but small, is in itself a curiosity; having not only male and female, but what the botanists call _androgynous_ plants." "A coarse grass, which we cut down for the cattle, grows pretty plentifully in a few small spots about the sides of the harbour, with a smaller sort, which is rarer; and upon the flat ground a sort of goose-grass, and another small plant much like it. In short, the whole catalogue of plants does not exceed sixteen or eighteen, including some sorts of moss, and a beautiful species of _lichen_, which grows upon the rocks, higher up than the rest of the vegetable productions. Nor is there even the least appearance of a shrub in the whole country." "Nature has rather been more bountiful in furnishing it with animals, though, strictly speaking, they are not inhabitants of the place, being all of the marine kind; and, in general, only using the land for breeding and for a resting-place. The most considerable are seals, or (as we used to call them) sea-bears, being that sort called the ursine seal. These come ashore to rest or breed; but they were not very numerous, which is not to be wondered at, as it is known that these animals rather frequent out-rocks, and little islands lying off coasts, than bays or inlets. They were, at this time, shedding their hair, and so tame, that we killed what number we chose." "No other quadruped, either of the sea or of the land kind, was seen; but a great number of birds, viz. ducks, petrels, albatrosses, shags, gulls, and sea-swallows." "The ducks are about the size of a teal or widgeon, but somewhat different in colour from either. They were in tolerable plenty about the sides of the hills, or even lower; and we killed a considerable number, which were good, and without the least fishy taste. We met with some of the same sort at the island of Georgia in our late voyage." "The cape petrel, or pintado bird; the small blue one, which is always seen at sea, and the small black one, or Mother Carey's chicken, are not here in great numbers. But we found a nest of the first with an egg in it, about the size of a pullet's; and the second, though scarce, was met with in some holes like rabbit-burrows." "Another sort, which is the largest of all the petrels, and called by the seamen Mother Carey's goose, is in greater numbers, and so tame, that at first we could kill them with a stick upon the beach. They are not inferior in size to an albatross, and are carnivorous, feeding on the dead carcasses of seals or birds that were thrown into the sea. Their colour is a sooty brown, with a greenish bill and feet; and, doubtless, they are the same that the Spaniards call _quebrantahuessos_, whose head is figured in Pernetty's Voyage to Falkland Islands."[125] [Footnote 125: Fig. 3, plate viii.]