72 VOYAGES OF A NATURALIST 



mails there. Soon after leaving Cape Town we 

 passed close to Robben Island, which is set apart 

 as a leper station. Many penguins were seen 

 during the passage, and numbers of Cape hens 

 followed the launch. Occasionally sooty and 

 black-browed albatroses flew by, but no specimens 

 were obtained as we had no guns with us, on 

 account of the strict regulations enforced on Dassen 

 Island, where the firing of guns is prohibited for 

 fear of disturbing the nesting birds. 



As we drew close to the island, after a few 

 hours' passage, we came in view of enormous 

 numbers of penguins sitting in rows upon the 

 shore, while the sea in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood was crowded with them. I had never before 

 seen so many birds together, but even this was 

 nothing to what we were to witness the next 

 day. As soon as we landed we were met by one 

 of the lighthouse-keepers, as well as by one of the 

 men whose duty it is to see that the birds are 

 undisturbed. 



Dassen Island is in no place more than a few 

 feet above the level of the sea ; it is entirely 

 uncultivated, and almost completely covered with 

 a low growing ice-plant. On the windward side 

 the shore is rocky, but in no place steep, while 

 on the leeward side it is sandy. The rest of the 

 island is covered with a deep layer of sand 

 in which the penguins dig holes for their nests 

 at the roots of the ice-plants. 



