TRISTAN DA CUNHA. 129 



On each side narrow alleys led at nearly right angles to the 

 rows of nests with which the whole space on either side of the 

 main street was taken up. 



Amongst the penguins here were numerous nests of the 

 yellow-billed Albatross {Diomeclea culminata) called by the 

 Tristan people " Mollymauk," variously spelt in books, Molly 

 Hawk, Mollymoy, Mollymoc, Mallymoke. It is, as are most 

 of the sealers' names in the South, a name originally given to one 

 of the Arctic birds, the Fulmar, and then transferred to the 

 Antarctic from some supposed or real resemblance. 



In the same manner the name given by northern whalers to 

 the Little Auk is given in the South to the Diving Petrel of Ker- 

 guelen's Land. And the term " clap match " given to the female 

 southern fur seals by the sealers is the name originally given by 

 the Dutch to the hooded seal or " bladdernose " of Greenland 

 (Cystocephalus), and is a corruption of the word "Klapmuts," 

 a bonnet, " the seal with a bonnet/' It is curious that in this 

 case the term should have been thus transferred to so very 

 different a seal, which has nothing resembling a hood, but the 

 word is so peculiar that there can be no doubt about its origin. 



Various similar corruptions are in use as terms for southern 

 animals. The name A lbatross itself is the Spanish word " alca- 

 traz " a " gannet." The Spanish no doubt called the albatrosses 

 they met with " gannets," their familiar sea bird, just as common 

 sailors will call every sea bird a gull, and a foreigner's corruption 

 of the word became adopted as a special name for the bird. 



The name Penguin is another instance in point. The word 

 was not coined, as often supposed, by the early Dutch navigators, 

 from the Latin word " pinguis," but is, as has been shown by 

 M. Eoulin, and others, a Breton or Welsh word, " pen gwenn," 

 " white head," the name originally given to European sea birds 

 with white heads, probably to the Puffin (Mormon fratercula). 

 The name Pingouin is applied in modern French to the Great 

 and Little Auk. In early voyages the name is applied to 

 various exotic sea birds. In early Dutch travels the true 

 meaning of the word is given, and it is stated to be English.* 



* Sy worden Pinguijnsghenaemt niet van wegenhaer vettigheyd, so de 



K 



