Hamilton. — Notes on a Visit to Macquarie Island. 559 



Practically, then, Dr. Croll has not lengthened out the age 

 of the sun's heat beyond that given by Sir William Thorn- 

 son's calculation : his suggestion would make a temporary star, 

 not a sun. 



Still, there are many ways to account for an increase of the 

 age of solar heat. As Proctor has pointed out, the sun may 

 have a very dense interior : this would indefinitely lengthen 

 out its age. And the rate of solar radiation might have been 

 much less when the sun was larger and cooler than it is at 

 present. It is impossible to say how far an absorbent atmo- 

 sphere may retard the radiation. 



I have pointed out this error because it was first stated in 

 " Climate and Time," and after nearly a score of years it was 

 again printed as the essential idea contained in Croll's book 

 on stellar evolution. 



Art. LXV. — Notes on a Visit to Macquaric Island. 



By A. Hamilton. 



{Read before the Otago Institute, 13th November, 1894.] 



Plate L. 



In the early part of 1891 I endeavoured to make arrangements 

 to go down to Macquarie Island, for the purpose of studying 

 the plants and the general natural history of that remote 

 speck in the southern ocean. I also desired, if possible, to 

 obtain a specimen of the skeleton of the great sea-elephant 

 for the University Museum. There is a good stuffed skin in 

 the collection, but there is no perfect skeleton of an adult 

 male in the museums of the Australasian Colonies. Professor 

 Scott, who visited Macquarie Island in 1880, brought back a 

 good skeleton of a female sea-elephant, which is now in the 

 Medical Museum of the University of Otago. I had several 

 interviews with Mr. Hatch, of Invercargill, the owner of the 

 ketch which is the sole means of communicating with the 

 island, with a view to arranging for a passage ; but his de- 

 mands were quite beyond my means, and I had to abandon 

 the project on the lines I had originally intended. I then 

 suggested that Professor Parker, the Director of the University 

 Museum, should get up an expedition, and if the necessary 

 funds for my passage could be found I should be very glad to 

 volunteer m\ services as an extra collector. With the help of 

 some gentlemen who kindly assisted the professor by guaran- 

 teeing the necessary funds, arrangements were made with Mr. 



