177^. ROUND THE WORLD. IJl 



of water ; because there I generally found a rocky 

 bottom. 



The refreshments to be got here are precarious, as 

 they consist chiefly of wild fowl, and may probably 

 never be found in such plenty as to supply the crew 

 of a ship ; and fish, so far as we can judge, are scarce. 

 Indeed the plenty of wild fowl made us pay less atten- 

 tion to fishing. Here are, however, plenty of mus- 

 cles, not very large, but well tasted ; and very good 

 celery is to be met with on several of the low islets, 

 and where the natives have their habitations. The 

 wild-fowl are geese, ducks, sea-pies, shags, and that 

 kind of gull so often mentioned in this journal under 

 the name of Port Egmont hen. Here is a kind of 

 duck, called by our people race-horses, on account of 

 the great swiftness with which they run on the water ; 

 for they cannot fly, the wings being too short to sup- 

 port the body in the air. This bird is at the Falk- 

 land Islands, as appears by Pernety's journal.* The 

 geese too are there, and seem to be very well de- 

 scribed under the name of bustards. They are much 

 smaller than our English tame geese, but eat as well 

 as any I ever tasted. They have short black bills 

 and yellow feet. The gander is all white ; the female 

 is spotted black and white, or grey with a large 

 white spot on each wing. Besides the bird above 

 mentioned, here are several other aquatic, and some 

 land ones ; but of the latter not many. 



From the knowlege which the inhabitants seem 

 to have of Europeans, we may suppose that they do 

 not live here continually, but retire to the north 

 during the winter. I have often wondered that these 

 people do not clothe themselves better, since nature 

 has certainly provided materials. They might line 

 their seal-skin cloaks with the skins and feathers of 

 aquatic birds ; they might make their cloaks larger, 

 and employ the same skins for other parts of clothing % 

 for I cannot suppose they are scarce with them. 

 * See Pernety's Journal, p. 244, and p. 213. 



