TRISTAN DA CUNHA. 117 



island, and of which we afterwards saw so mnch at Kerguelen's 

 Land. 



As we approached the shore, I was astonished at seeing a 

 shoal of what looked like extremely active very small porpoises 

 or dolphins. I could not imagine what the things could be, 

 unless they were indeed some most marvellously small Cetaceans; 

 they showed black above and white beneath, and came along in 

 a shoal of fifty or more, from seawards towards the shore at a 

 rapid pace, by a series of successive leaps out of the water, and 

 splashes into it again, describing short curves in the air, taking 

 headers out of the water and headers into it again; splash, 

 splash, went this marvellous shoal of animals, till they went 

 splash through the surf on to the black stony beach, and there 

 struggled and jumped up amongst the boulders and revealed 

 themselves as wet and dripping penguins, for such they were. 



Much as I had read about the habits of penguins, I never 

 could have believed that the creatures I saw thus progressing 

 through the water, were birds, unless I had seen them to my 

 astonishment thus make on shore. I had subsequently much 

 opportunity of watching their habits. 



We landed on the beach ; it was bounded along its whole 

 stretch at this point by a dense growth of tussock. The 

 tussock (Spartina arundinacea), is a stout coarse red-like grass : 

 it grows in large clumps, which have at their base large masses 

 of hard woody matter, formed of the bases of old stems and 

 roots. 



In penguin rookeries, the grass covers wide tracts with a 

 dense growth like that of a field of standing corn, but denser 

 and higher, the grass reaching high over one's head. 



The Falkland Island " tussock " (Dactylis coespitosa), is of 

 a different genus, but it seems to have a similar habit. 

 Here there is a sort of mutual-benefit-alliance between the 

 penguins and the tussock. The millions of penguins sheltering 

 and nesting amongst the grass, saturate the soil on which it 

 grows, with the strongest manure, and the grass thus stimulated 

 grows high and thick, and shelters the birds from wind and 

 rain, and enemies, such as the predatory gulls. 



On the beach were to be seen various groups of penguins, 



