AN INTERESTING BIRD. 



65: 



A:N' mTERESTrnG BIED. 



By J. H. KIDDER, M. D., 



PASSED ASSISTANT SUEGEON, UNITED STATES NAVY. 



KERGXJELEN" Island is in latitude 48-49 south ; longitude 70 

 east from Greenwich, That is to say, it is in the South Indian 

 Ocean, about half-way between the Cape of Good Hope and Austra- 

 lia, but well to the southward of both. It is rather an archipelago 

 than an island, innumerable small peaks being grouped around and in 

 the estuaries of a central mass of volcanic rock, about ninety miles 

 long by fifty wide, and shaped somewhat like a spider, of which its 

 numerous long promontories and peninsulas represent the legs. Be- 



FiG. 1. The Seteath-bili, op Keeguelen Island. 



ing treeless, barren, uninhabited, and uninhabitable, and situated in a 

 region given over to boisterous gales and continual rain or snow, it 

 is a country seldom visited. It was discovered about a hundred years 

 ago, by the unfortunate Lieutenant Kerguelen, of the French marine, 

 and about two years afterward found again by Captain Cook, who 

 gave it the name of Desolation Island. During May, June, and July, 

 1840, Sir James Clark Koss remained there with the Erebus and Ter- 

 voL. VIII. 42 



