KEEGUELEX's LAND. 207 



appointed, when they found we were not sealers, for they appa- 

 rently could not penetrate the skin of the dead cow, and a day or 

 two afterwards only the eyes were pecked out : but the Break- 

 bones were then still hanging about the carcass, waiting, though 

 not in such numbers as before. 



On another day, beneath the cliffs, north of Betsy Cove, I 

 found a young Fur-Seal lying amongst some boulders at the foot 

 of the cliff. There was a broad flat shelf of rock here, nearly 

 level with the sea, and forming an excellent landing-place for 

 seals, so I was especially hunting for them, but should have 

 missed this one amongst the rocks, had it not attracted my 

 attention by a sort of half-hiss, half-snarl. I killed it, and 

 carried the whole beast with great labour to the ship, half a mile 

 or more, on my back, in order that a skeleton should be made 

 of it. 



On several occasions I superintended parties of stokers, who 

 volunteered to dig up birds and eggs for our collection. This 

 is the method in which very many of the birds of Kerguelen 

 are most readily procured. The beaten ground beneath the 

 Azorella is perforated everywhere with holes of various petrels. 

 Those of the Prion {Prion desolatus) are most numerous. They 

 are about big enough to admit the hand, but the nest and egg- 

 are nearly always far out of reach, the holes going in a yard and 

 a-half sometimes. 



Prion is a small grey bird, a petrel from the form of the 

 nostrils, but with a broad boat-shaped bill, with extremely fine 

 horny lamellce, projecting on either margin of the bill inside. 

 The bird flies like a swallow, and was nearly always to be seen 

 in flocks about the ship, or cruising over the sea, or attendant on 

 a whale to pick up the droppings from its mouth. Hence it is 

 termed by sealers the "Whale-bird." Its food, as that of all 

 the petrels except the carrion ones, seems to consist of the very 

 abundant surface animals of the south seas, especially of small 

 Crustacea. These form also, apparently, the only food of the 

 penguins; for the stomachs of all the penguins which we 

 examined were crammed with them only. The Prion lays a 

 single white egg. 



Besides the Prion there is the " Mutton-bird" of the whalers 



