THE ANTARCTIC SEAL FISHERIES. 419 



are most clearly defined. Only along the si-a-shore is a narrow bell of herbage, of \\ hicli the singu- 

 lar Kcrguelen cabbage is at once tlie largest, and most conspicuous component. The weather is 

 also extremely inclement, there being scarcely a day without snow or rain. * * * In former 

 years the Kergnelen group of islands was noted as a favorite breeding place for the sea-elephant. 

 On this account it has been much frequented by sealers for the last forty years, and resorted to 

 also by whalers as a winteringplace, on account of the great security of Three Island Harbor. The 

 sea-elephants have been so recklessly killed off year after year, no precautions having been taken 

 to secure the preservation of the species, that now they have become very rare. Only a single 

 small schooner, the Roswell King, of New London, Conn , was working the island during our 

 visit (1874-75) ; two others and a bark working Heard's Island, some 300 miles to the south, 

 where tbe elephants are still found in considerable numbers. Probably they would long since 

 have abandoned the Kergueleu Island altogether but for a single inaccessible stretch of coast 

 'Bonfire Beach,' where they still 'haul up' every spring (October and November), and breed in 

 considerable numbers. The beach is limited at each end by precipitous cliffs, across which it is 

 quite impossible to transport oil in casks, nor can boats land from the sea or vessels lie in the 

 offiing, from the fact that the beach is on the west, or windward, coast, and exposed to the full vio- 

 lence of the wind. * * * 



"The increasing scarcity of the sea-elephant, and consequent uncertainty in hunting it, together 

 with the diminished demand for the oil since the introduction of coal-oil into general use, have 

 caused a great falling off in the business of elephant-hunting. The Crozet Islands, for example, 

 had not been worked for five years, and at Kerguelen there was only one smallschooner engaged 

 in this pursuit, two others making Three Island Harbor their headquarters, but spending the sea- 

 son at Heard's Island, 300 miles to the southward. It may therefore be reasonably hoped that 

 these singular animals, but lately far on the way toward extinction, will have an opportunity to 

 increase again in numbers, and that sealers may learn from past experience to carry on their hunt- 

 ing operations with more judgment, sparing breeding females and very young cubs. When the 

 Mouongahela visited the Crozet Islands, on December 1, they found the sea-elephant very numer- 

 ous, although left undisturbed for only five seasons."* 



HEARD'S ISLAND.! 



One of the most desolate and at the same time most profitable hunting grounds for the sea- 

 elephant is the pile of rocks and ice known to sealers as Heard's Island. It was discovered by 

 Captain Heard or Herd, a Boston navigator, in 1853. Several years prior to that date New London 

 sealers while cruising south of Desolation, reported that laud could be seen from the mast-head, 

 but none had gone near enough to be sure of a new land until Captain Heard's discovery. He did 

 not land on the shores. The first landing was made in 1854 by Capt. E. D. Rogers, of New Lon- 

 don, who was then on a whaling and sealing cruise in the ship Corinthian. 



Captain Rogers gives the following account of this visit: 



"In November, 3853, I left New London in the ship Corinthian, bound on a whaling voyage, 

 and while cruising from Desolation Island in January, 1854, concluded to visit Heard's Island, 

 that 1 learned had been recently discovered by Captain Heard in a Boston vessel. As soon as we 

 reached the island men were sent ashore and reported a great abundance of sea-elephants, and iu 

 fact we could see great numbers of them lying on the beaches. We were the first men, so far as 



Contributions to the Natural History of Kergneleu Island, made in connection with the United States Transit-of- 

 Veuus Expedition, 187J-75. Ry .1. IT. KII.DKR. M. I). Mull. I'. S. X:it. Mus., No. :!. 1*76. 



t Also spelled Herd's Island, as on the accompanying sketch map, prepared liy Capt. H. C. Chester, who spent 

 several seasons there hunting the sea elephant. 



