Excerpt from Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of S. Y. Scotia During the Years 1902, 1903 and 1904, Under the Leadership of William S. Bruce

Tm: botanical results of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition deal principally with the South Orkney Islands and with Diego Alvarez or Gough Island. From neither of these islands had we any botanical knowledge before the visit of the Scotia.

The South Orkneys were visited twice during the summer, in February 1903 and February 1904, and at Scotia Bay in Laurie Island the Scotia spent the winter of 1903. Numerous opportunities thus presented themselves for making collections of the scanty flora of Laurie Island.

On Gough Island the naturalists of the Scalar were able to spend only a few hours ashore on one day, and on that occasion it was impossible to go far inland out of touch with the ship, since the weather conditions were such as to promise a hasty recall. Consequently the collections from Gough Island are in no direction exhaustive.

No landing was made on Coats Land, which the expedition had the honour to dis cover, since none was possible, owing to the lateness of the season and the threatening nature of the heavy pack in which the Scotia was beset.

The marine algae of the Weddell Sea were most extensively collected through fully miles of previously unexplored waters, not to speak of the collections made from Madeira to the Falkland Islands, and from Cape Town to the Azores. The Report on the Phytoplankton will be published later. Dr Harvey Pirie has added the results of his bacteriological work.

A few notes of value on the botany of Ascension are included, based on collections made on the homeward voyage of the Scotia.

On an expedition primarily equipped for oceanographical exploration, a botanist cannot look for great opportunities beyond the study of phytoplankton, and it is with great pleasure that I look back on the invariable thoughtfulness and help of my leader, Dr W. S. Bruce, whenever an occasion for botanical work presented itself. I would take this opportunity of recording my thanks to him and to my colleagues of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition for the generous assistance they gave me in furthering and in sharing my work on the expedition.

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