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CAMPBELL ISLAND 



View of Perseverance Harbour from a height 0/200 metres, showing tussock grcu^ ujh! brooding 

 royal albatross in the foreground. When seen in lonely flight over the rough and perpetually 

 changing sea, this bird seems a most exclusive and unapproachable creature, but on its breeding- 

 grounds the handsome glider is rather gooselike. 



early famous for its large white albatrosses. Both royal and wandering 

 albatrosses soar over the island; but whereas the latter breed on a num- 

 ber of islands in the sub-Antarctic, the chief breeding-ground of the royal 

 albatross is Campbell Island, where it is estimated that there are about 

 5,000 breeding pairs. They nest a couple of hundred metres up the gently 

 sloping cliff sides, above the scrub where the tussock grass predominates. 

 From the Galatheas deck, lighting permitting (we evidently had more 

 sunshine during our week's stay than was due to us according to the 

 statistics), we could see small white spots in the cliff face and through 

 our glasses make out that they were breeding birds. 



Many people have seen gliding albatrosses; but to see the royal alba- 

 trosses in their breeding-grounds on an insignificiant little island at the 

 edge of the civilized world is reserved for the few; and only a handful 

 of mortals, the station officials on Campbell Island, have been able to 

 study them all the year round - — a royal recompense for years of isola- 

 tion and privation. When seen in solitary flight the royal albatross seems 

 an extremely exclusive and unapproachable creature, but seen here 

 in its breeding-grounds it presents an altogether different aspect. It is 



