180 A NATURALIST ON THE " CHALLENGER. 



done amongst them, came and pecked at the eggs almost between 

 onr legs. 



The Sknas of course were close at hand, and swooped down at 

 once on the body of a penguin that we skinned. Beyond the 

 penguin rookery was a large tract of nearly flat land, very 

 swampy, and covered with grass. On the drier parts were 

 numerous troops of from twenty to thirty King Penguins, and 

 in one place a smaller rookery, but as far as I saw without 

 brooders. 



There was here a shallow freshwater lake, on which some 

 young albatrosses were swimming. I ascended the slope inland 

 towards the snow, going up the gentle slope of the modern- 

 looking lava flow already referred to. The ground was very 

 boggy, and let one sink in sometimes almost up to the middle. 

 There were numerous Great Albatross's nests scattered about, 

 but they did not extend more than 100 feet above sea level, and 

 hardly anywhere as high up as that. 



Far above the level of these, I found a young bird, I think 

 the young of the Giant Petrel, in a nest scarcely raised from the 

 ground ; the young bird vomited up the contents of its stomach 

 and gush after gush of red oily fluid at me as I stirred it up 

 with a stick. All the petrels vomit oil in this way, and the 

 white ones thus are apt to spoil themselves for stuffing in a 

 most provoking way, before one can get their mouths and 

 nostrils stuffed with cotton wool. 



The valley in which the lava flow up which I was going, lay, 

 was bounded to the south by a cliff about 200 feet high, com- 

 posed of a series of more ancient lava flows. The lowermost of 

 these showed a more perfect columnar structure than the upper- 

 most, and the columns of the lower layers were much smaller 

 than those of the upper. A small stream ran down in the 

 narrow depression, between the border of the lava stream and 

 the talus slopes of the cliff. In the bed of this were at intervals 

 small beds of a compact red earth, forming almost a rock, 

 deposited by the stream, and subsequently in places cut through 

 by it and exposed in section. 



High up, at about 500 feet elevation, 'were some four or five 

 Sooty Albatrosses (Diomedea fuliginosa, the Piew or Pio of 



