HEARD ISLAND. 229 



breeding season at about the middle of August, the females a 

 little later. 



There were said to be forty men in all upon Heard Island. 

 Men occasionally get lost upon the glaciers. Sometimes a man 

 gets desperate from being in so miserable a place, and one of the 

 crew of a whaler that we met at Kerguelen's Land said, after 

 he had had some rum, that occasionally men had to be shot;, a 

 statement which may be true or false, but which expresses at all 

 events the feelings of the men on the matter. 



The men that we saw seemed contented with their lot. The 

 " boss " said, in answer to our inquiries, that he had only one 

 Fur-Seal skin, which he would sell if he was paid for it, but he 

 guessed he'd sell it anyhow when he got back to the States. He 

 had been engaged in sealing about the island since 1854, having 

 landed with the first sealing party which visited the island. 

 For his present engagement his time was up next year, but he 

 guessed he'd stay two years more. He'd make 500 dollars or 

 so before he went home, but would probably spend half of that 

 when he touched at the Cape of Good Hope on the way. 



The men had good clothing, and did not look particularly 

 dirty. They lived in wooden huts, or rather under roofs built 

 over holes in the ground, thus reverting to the condition of the 

 ancient British. Around their huts were oil casks and tanks, 

 and a hand-barrow for wheeling blubber about. There were 

 also casks marked Molasses, Flour, and Coal. 



The men said they had as much biscuit as they wanted, and 

 also beans and pork, and a little molasses and flour. Their 

 principal food was penguins (Euclyptes chrysolophv.s), and they 

 used penguin skins with the fat on for fuel. Captain Sir G. S. 

 ISTares saw five such skins piled on the fire one after the other in 

 one of the huts. 



The bay in which we anchored was thronged with Cape 

 Pigeons (Daption Capensis) and Prions in astonishing numbers. 

 The Prions were on the wing in the usual manner, in dense 

 flocks ; the Pigeons, called sometimes by the sealers " Egli Bird," 

 were mostly feeding on the water at the mouth of the glacier 

 stream. They were breeding in holes in the low basaltic cliffs. 



On the same cliffs was a rookery of Shags. They appeared 



