258 



CAMPBELL ISLAND 



in these latitudes, and which even here in the sound will whip off the 

 surface water, sending it pulverized into the air like the finest, frosty snow. 



Campbell Island lies in the path of the west winds in the "furious fifties", 

 at latitude 52° 30' S. and longitude 169° E. The waves raised near Cape 

 Horn roll in a heavy swell round the world without encountering any 

 land to break them. Only a few islets, of which Campbell Island is one, 

 remain as crumbling breakwaters in the track of this perpetually rolUng 

 current formed by the west winds, forgotten remnants of past volcanic 

 action. 



It is not a large island, the widest point being only some 17 kilometres 

 across. It was discovered in 18 10 by Captain Hasselburgh on board the 

 Perseverance. i\fter taking part in a punitive expedition against the war- 

 like Maories of New Zealand at the beginning of that year, the ship had 

 been fitted out at Sydney for a cruise to the southern seas with the object 

 of finding new hunting-grounds of the valuable fur seals and elephant 

 seals, the stock of which had already been gravely depleted at the known 

 hunting-grounds, owing to over-exploitation. Hasselburgh succeeded not 

 only in discovering Campbell Island, which he named after the shipowner, 

 but also the Auckland Islands, where seals were abundant. 



However, the island gained a bad reputation from the start. Hassel- 

 burgh capized and was drowned in one of the sudden squalls. There was 

 another accident the following year, when five men who had rowed out 

 in a boat vanished without trace. From then on Campbell Island was rarely 



Campbell Island was created by violent volcanic action at the end of the Tertiary period (left 

 figure) . The western part of the original, regular cone of the volcano, together with the crater 

 itself, has been submerged. In the Glacial period, glaciers ploughed deep valleys in the eastern 

 side of the island; these were later submerged and now form deep fjords, the largest of which 

 is Perseverance Harbour. 



