Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

William, which looked rocky enough. We first withdrew £2 in Falkland Islands
money (since people had been working a currency racket between the islands
and Monte, the English pound was no longer accepted), and then we collected
Ken Pawson and Dave Golton.
We took the road along the side of the ‘loch’. Port Stanley, a town of red
corrugated iron roofs, boasts the most southerly cathedral in the world - which
has a cast iron roof - and all the important buildings were ranged along the
seafront. We walked past the Colony Club, Police Station, Post Office,
Government House, Treasury, army camp (unoccupied) with a large cinemalike
frontage (which, we later learnt was the Officers' Mess), and out into the
country. There were numerous large orange jelly-fish washed up on the shore;
unusual mussels and seaweed made it quite unlike a British shore, but in its
larger aspects the scene was very like a small sea loch on the west coast of
Scotland. Having passed all the buildings we left the road and climbed over
heathy ground to Sapper Hill. There were numerous red berries of the plant the
locals (‘kelpers’) called ‘heath’ or ‘diddle dee’ and a small aven. Also masses of
fluffy white seed heads very similar to the English clematis, but growing on a
prostrate plant with fleshy leaves.
Between Sapper Hill and the foot of the rocks of Mount William the
ground was for the most part boggy. We pressed on across this with frequent
halts as I found new plants to examine. There were masses of daisies, oxeyes
and a yellow composite with large flowers in single heads. The most beautiful
plant was a small campanula, white-petalled with purple tips and a delightful
asymmetry. The grasses and sedges looked interesting but we pressed on, as
time was short. At the foot of Mount William were masses of ferns, like
compound harts-tongues. The quartzite rocks dipped to the north so that the
ridge on which we now started to climb was overhanging on its southern side.
As the wind and rain came from the north west, we were in exposed positions
most of the way. It was delightful gritty rock to climb on and we followed the
ridge in a terrific wind until it became necessary either to leave it or to rope up.
So we left it for a short distance and did some more botanizing. There were
some very large saxifrage domes, but none in flower; alchemillas, sorrels, a
white composite with very hairy leaves and stems, and a cloudberry-like flower
that had a single red berry when in fruit.
My damaged finger grew troublesome and I left a trail of blood to mark
my first ascent of Mount William. The top was a shallow corrie with a buttress
in the middle of the open end of the U. We decided to climb up this from the
southeast and accordingly roped up. It was a climb of no more than ‘moderate’
difficulty. Then down boilerplate slabs along the foot and up an interesting
route on limited holds - a bit like Cioch slab in Skye. We scrambled down a
grassy gulley and across a large stone river up the slopes of Mount
Tumbledown. The rain was still going strong but we were only too pleased -
after the restricting life on the ship - to find ourselves out on the hills, to care
about being soaked. The north side of Mount Tumbledown was more
interesting than the south as it boasted some steep and in places overhanging
crags.
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