iS97-] Praeger. — Expedition to Rockall. 319 



forty-eight hours at home, was on the platform to meet us, 

 with the captain and four sailors. We left Killybegs at ii.o 

 p.m. — a lovely evening. There was thick fog during the 

 night, and a bit of a roll off Rathlin O'Birne. This morning is 

 cloudy, but clear on the water, and delightfully calm, with just 

 a slight roll coming from the north, and a gentle S-E- wind ; 

 and we are all in high hopes of a successful landing to-morrow 

 morning. The first Fulmar was welcomed at breakfast time. 



lo.o P.M. — All day we have bowled along N.N.W. in a calm 

 sea. The time has been fully occupied in getting the harpoon 

 gun, sounding machine, trawls and dredges ready, and in 

 making good damage done to gear in the rough weather last 

 week. During the afternoon the sky cleared, and we had a 

 couple of hours of glorious sunshine, but now a fresh S.W. 

 breeze has sprung up, under which the surface of the ocean 

 is already beginning to move, and the sky is dark and rainy. 

 We feel very anxious about our prospects to-morrow. Great 

 Shearwaters have been about all afternoon and evening- 



5.30 A.M., Monday, June 15. — All awakened by Green at 

 4.4'5 — the rock in sight ; and all soon on deck. A very nasty 

 morning, with high wind and bad sea from W.S.W. The sea 

 is not, however, so bad as the last day we were at the rock, but 

 still it is doubful if landing could be attempted. We crept up 

 and passed the rock at half a cable's length (100 yards). At 

 this distance it looks distinctly gneissose at one spot low down 

 on the right hand side of the great S-E. face, and we can see 

 that the surface is pitted almost everywhere. PuflSns are 

 sitting in some of the pits on the eastern side. Guillemots in 

 numbers, and some Kittiwakes and Gannets, are sitting on the 

 rock as before. The chief joint-plane of the isiet dips about 

 15^ E.S.E., and the two sides of the rock at its most " toppled 

 over" view, are pretty much perpendicular to this. The centre 

 of Rockall bears S-S.W. from the centre of the Hazlewood 

 Rock. N.E. by N. is the exact strike of the almost vertical 

 fiat south-easterly face. 



5.0 P.M. — The wind and sea increased, rendering all thought 

 of effecting a landing out of the question, and we hung round 

 the rock, getting some more sketches and photographs. We 

 crept in again to within a half cable's length, and in spite of 

 rain, spray, and roll. Green got some good shots with his half- 

 plate camera. But even at this distance, so great was the back- 



