184 



CHAPTER VIII. 



KERGUELEN'S LAND. 



Position of the Island. Its Mountains and Fjords. Active Volcano. 

 Christmas Harbour. Sea Elephants and Fur Seals. Shooting Teal. 

 The Kerguelen Cabbage. Wingless Flies and Gnats. Vegetation at 

 Successive Heights. Fossil Wood. Rookeries of Rock Hopper and 

 Macaroni Penguins. Penguins Inhabiting a Cave. Betsy Cove. 

 Glaciation of the Land Surface. Iceborne Rocks. Excavation of the 

 Fjords. Beds of Burnt Coal. The Sea Leopard. Killing Sea 

 Elephants. Nature of the Trunk of the Sea Elephant. Carrion 

 Birds. The Giant Petrel. Habits of several Burrowing Petrels. 

 The Diving Petrel. Habits of Sheath Bills. Struggle for Existence 

 amongst the Birds. Mode of Whaling amongst the Kelp. 



Kerguelen's Land, January 1th to January 30th, 1814. — 



Kerguelen's Land extends from about lat. 48° 39' S., to lat. 

 49° 44' S* Its southernmost point is therefore in about 

 corresponding latitude to the Lizard in Cornwall, which is in a 

 little less than 50° K In longitude, very roughly speaking, 

 Kerguelen's Land corresponds with the island of Eodriguez, 

 the Maldive Islands, Bombay, Tobolsk, and the mouth of the 

 Eiver Obi. 



The extreme length of the island is about 85 miles, and the 

 extreme breadth 79 miles ; but the coast is so much indented by 

 sounds or fjords that the area of the island is not more than, 

 very roughly, 2,050 square miles, or about three times as great 

 as that of Oxfordshire. 



The island lies within the belt of rain at all seasons of the 



* Lat. of Cape Francis, the northernmost point, 48°- 39 S., long. 

 69°-02 E. 



Lat. of Cape Challenger, the southernmost point, 49°'44 S., long. 



70°'05 E. 



Extreme breadth between long. 70°'35 E. and long. 68 0> 42 E. 

 The Lizard is in lat. 49°'57 0' 41" N. 



