There is another remarkable peculiarity in this island: its shores to a very considerable extent out to sea are surrounded with the plant called _Fucus maximus_, mentioned by Captain Cook; it grows to the depth of sixty fathoms, or one hundred and eighty feet, and reaches in one long stem to the surface, when it continues to run along to the enormous length of three or four hundred feet, with short alternate branches at every foot of its length. Thus, in the stormy ocean grows a plant higher and of greater length than any vegetable production of the surface of the earth, not excepting the banyan tree, which, as its branches touch the ground, takes fresh root, and may be said to form a separate tree. These marine plants resist the most powerful attacks of the mightiest elements combined; the winds and the waves in vain combine their forces against them; uniting their foliage on the bosom of the waters, they laugh at the hurricane and defy its power. The leaves are alternate; and when the wind ruffles the water, they flap over, one after the other, with a mournful sound, doubly mournful to us from the sad association of ideas and the loneliness of the island. The branches or tendrils of these plants are so strong and buoyant, when several of them happen to unite, that a boat cannot pass through them; I tried with my feet what pressure they would bear, and I was convinced that, with a pair of snow-shoes, a man might walk over them. Captain Peters kindly invited me to go on shore with him. We landed with much difficulty, and proceeded to the cottage of a man who had been left there from choice; he resided with his family, and, in imitation of another great personage on an island to the northward of him, styled himself "Emperor." A detachment of British soldiers had been sent from the Cape of Good Hope to take possession of this spot, but after a time they were withdrawn. His present imperial majesty had, at the time of my visit, a black consort, and many snuff-coloured princes and princesses. He was in other respects a perfect Robinson Crusoe: he had a few head of cattle, and some pigs: these latter have greatly multiplied on the island. Domestic fowls were numerous, and he had a large piece of ground planted with potatoes, the only place south of the equator which produces them in their native perfection. The land is rich and susceptible of great improvement; and the soil is intersected with numerous running springs over its surface. But it was impossible to look on this lonely spot without recalling to mind the beautiful lines of Cowper-- "O Solitude, where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face?" Yet in this wild place alarms and even rebellion had found their way; the emperor had but one subject, and this Caliban had ventured, in direct violation of an imperial mandate, to kill a fowl for his dinner.